Funny Girl, by Nick Hornby, is a satirical novel that takes black in 1960s England—most particularly in Blackpool and London. It explores the character of a young 20 something-year-old Barbara Parker, from Blackpool, who idolizes Lucille Ball. Barbara yearns to make a career out of comedy and acting, just like Ball, and forfeits her title and award of Miss. Blackpool of 1964, to move to London to pursue her passions and aspirations in acting.
She moves to London, leaving her father and aunt in Blackpool, and tries to succeed and move ahead—career wise. Luckily for Barbara, her gorgeous looks, big bust, and perfect body, paved the way and contributed to her success and fame in the acting industry. Later, Barbara changes her name to Sophie Straw and becomes the main star in a new sitcom series called, Barbara (and Jim). The main character, in the show, is unintentionally similar to Sophie. Ironically, the character has the same name as Sophie—before she changed her name—and although Barbara in the show is married, the fictional character is also from Blackpool. The show makes the new actress enter into unforeseen prominence and stardom. Sophie quickly finds herself in love with her job and her new famous life; the show allows Sophie to be able to exhibit her talent and her knack for comedy.
This is my first Nick Hornby novel, and on my TBR list I have High Fidelity—which I heard so many good reviews about. I gave this book a go, because I was interested in the plot and main idea of the book. It’s different, it had funny parts in the story that made me laugh out loud, and I love how the author not only focuses on just one character—but with every character in the book. I liked how he explored the personal lives of the producers, writers, actors, and so on and so forth—which made the book intriguing. Although it’s supposed to be a comical and light-hearted novel, it wasn’t extremely funny; some parts were very drawn out that took away from the lines and parts that were supposed to make readers laugh.
The book is a tribute to the golden age of light entertainment, which is why Lucille Ball became a key part of the book and a main inspiration to Sophie; Ball was a talented, honest, and funny actress that redefined sitcom humor and brought laughter to many homes in America during the 1950s. Everything mentioned in the book is based on a broad factual past of light entertainment, politics in England, and BBC programming. Hornby’s goal was to only pay a tribute to the tone and style of television era, but to also vividly illustrate it.
I most particularly liked how the last chapter of the book flashes forward to the present time, and we get to know exactly what the character’s have been up to since their rise to fame fifty years later. But overall, it wasn’t a novel to brag about or to even greatly praise. I rated it three stars because I thought the plot was interesting, and as I mentioned previously before, Hornby is not only focusing on Sophie’s journey to fame and success—but also everyone else involved in the creation of the sitcom show. The idea and main objective of the book was enough to make me like the book, but the overall content in the book didn’t make me fall in love with the story.
x, Kayla
No comments