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I’ve finally finished this book! The sad thing first: I was relieved, that I’m finally done. That’s not particularly a good thing, is it?
But the book hasn’t been all bad. I wanted to finish it, I needed to know what’s going to happen to the characters. So there’s been some kind of suspense… I’m just not sure what it was.
“Funny Girl” is about a girl – about a boy was the other Nick Hornby one 😉
Barbara’s from Blackpool, but moves to London at the beginning of the novel with the dream to become a comedy actress at the BBC. The story is set in the 1960, so TV was new and everything about it really exciting. And as you do she gets an agent, changes her name to Sophie Straw and makes her dream come true as the story continues.
The main part of the novel is about the fictional comedy series Barbara (and Jim) in which Sophie gets to play the lead character. Hornby tells the story of the actors, writers and producers of the series, they’re ups and downs and their struggles with life in general.
Now that plot already foretells my problem with the book I think. I felt like I was reading a documentary about making the series. A making of in some kind. And not a very sensitive one. I was missed getting to know the inside of at least one character, knowing a lot about how they feel and why they did the things they did. Hornby tells the story in a very factual way.
The story itself was good. That’s why I’m struggling to tell if the book was good or bad. In a way I was amazed by the way the story was made up. Because it sounded so realistic and I actually googled if there really wasn’t a series called Barbara (and Jim) and if the people really didn’t exist. And I somehow was sad about it being fictional, because the series sounds like a lot of fun and I would have loved to watch it.
Therefore it’s a very well done job if the book was written to imitate the process of making of television in the 1960’s, the life of the people working for the BBC back then and about early day comedy shows, which sound a lot more funny than today’s ones.
But if it was meant to be a funny and emotional story about a young girl making her dream come true it’s definitely lacking emotions.
Have you read the book? I’m really excited to hear about what you thought of it. Especially because I’m still not really sure what to think about it. Please leave a comment below.
Lots of Love
Julia
