Romance among The Night Owls

Because this is by Curtis Sittenfeld, I didn’t even ask what the book was about, I just dived right in when I got my hands on it. 70 pages in, I was starting to ask myself if I should just not finish the book, because I wasn’t enjoying it all that much. It wasn’t bad by any means, it just had what I felt was way too much information on the behind-the-scenes workings of TNO (The Night Owls), a late night show with comedy sketches, featuring celebrities and comic routines. Our protagonist is a staff writer on TNO, apparently a very coveted job and which takes in extremely talented people.

”For sure, this is my dream job,” I said. “Even with the baked-in sexism, even when I have barely slept. I just can’t imagine a job where I laugh more, and the people are more talented and hardworking. And get paid to make fun of stuff that deserves to be made fun of and have this huge platform – what more could a misanthrope from Missouri wish for? (p44). 

The start of the novel introduces too many characters too quickly, and tells the reader everything and more that they may ever have wished to know about the production process of such shows, perhaps overloading on this kind of information before the readers are properly invested in the characters. It is not that the behind-the-scenes production information is dull, but it needs to be embedded better, given more context and reader investment, rather than going heavy at the start. As always, Sittenfeld is a good writer so it is no effort to read whatever she is writing, but it engaged me so little that I seriously thought of just returning the book unfinished. But I then I thought, why not just give it till 100 pages, and see if it develops better? If it just goes on the same vein, I was definitely going to stop mid-way and leave it unread. 

However, the book started to improve by leaps and bounds, making me glad I gave it more time to get going. We understand there is a romance developing between Noah Brewster, a celebrity on the show, and our protagonist, Sally Milz. The rest of the book plays out that romance development, in a rather sweet way, taking on board the pandemic and lockdowns, which gave rise to a lovely exchange of e-mails between the two which were touchingly old-fashioned and extremely effective in creating a strong connection. (They even jokingly call each other pen pals.)  

It is a comedy, as the title tells us, so the other characters are much like props, side kicks, they are all nice guys (and gals), good people who pop in to play their roles, but we have no real inkling of their lives or personalities. Sally’s two friends at TNO just play BFF parts, her stepfather plays his role as lovely, kind old relative, Noah’s sister has a walk on part and a mention but no real presence, etc. Perhaps it is all part of the lockdown mental framing, that the world contracts into just a few key characters, in this case, just 2, in their own little world. Wondrous little world as they are discovering each other and newly becoming lovers. 

There is a nice thematic connection running throughout, which the novel begins with, a sketch Sally writes called the Danny Horst rule. Sally takes a lot of her inspiration from real life, and dares to poke fun at people around her. Danny is a good friend and officemate of Sally’s, who has begun dating and then become engaged to a celebrity on the show.

“Anyway, I want to write about the phenomenon where – sorry, Danny, I really do love you – but where men at TNO date above their station, women never do” (p14).

Sally has observed 3 couples in this arrangement already, and also one failed relationship of her own at TNO which fits into this pattern. Noah at first is not enamoured by this sketch, and later, it gets pulled when Danny has to be removed from the sketch as his celebrity fiancee publicly breaks off their engagement and he is devastated. But the Danny Horst rule is keeping Sally feeling very insecure about her growing relationship with the smoking hot, handsome, sexy, etc Noah Brewster (her adjectives) -who is also famous and rich – despite their very strong chemistry and connection.  

At various junctures in the growing romance, Sally self-sabotages the romance with her insecurities about why Noah would choose her, a mousy brunette, when he has dated models and other gorgeous women. Noah had told her many reasons – her intelligence and talent, his feeling he is the best version of himself with her, they can talk endlessly, etc – but of course, insecurities are largely illogical, so Sally continues to trip over them.

There is one point I wish Sittenfeld addressed less superficially. To her credit, Sittenfeld brings up the situation of what Sally stands to lose when Noah invites her to move into his mansion in California and relocate her life. He suggests she can quit her job and turn to screen writing which she has said she wanted to do for some time. But Sally challenges this at once.

“So I’d suddenly become a person generating no income while living in some man’s mansion?” (p266).

 “If I were to quit TNO and stay here, it would cost you nothing. If we break up in two months, or in eight months, you can just proceed like this never happened. But I’d have given up my job and my apartment and my life in the city where I have friends. […] I’d have given up my identity. Instead of being a TNO writer, I’d be like, Example Seven in an article about nineteen celebs who are totally dating normies” (p266). 

Alas, Sittenfeld raises these questions but the novel and plot does not address them – the loss of income, the becoming a dependent, the uprooting and loss of the life and career Sally had worked so hard to build, the risks all these involve if the relationship does not work out. This is a problem for many career women, that relationships, particularly long distance ones, or else the decision to become a stay-at-home-mum, often involve huge sacrifices or at least high levels of personal risk for the woman usually, with very few guarantees; the only surety being if the relationship does not work out, they will be the losers, financially particularly, and in other ways too. This then of course puts a lot of extra pressure on the partner who has risked the most, to stay in the relationship and make it work. Perhaps we can excuse Sittenfeld of glossing over this angle on the grounds that this is supposed to be a romance comedy, and meant to be warm and fuzzy. But it is not satisfactory, nevertheless. 

All this said, and despite my own lack of interest in the too-detailed workings of a TNO show at the start of the novel, or the first quarter/third of the novel, and despite all the other characters being props and intentionally so probably, this still is a novel which read extremely well. Once the romance got off the ground, and the book became character-led/driven, it was much more engaging and charming. So a good read in the end, and I shall still dive into the next Sittenfeld novel which is released without needing to ask any questions.