Good Material

LoveReading Says

Alderton cements herself a little further in my must-read author list with every new book. She seemingly can do it all. Her award-winning memoir Everything I Know About Love was a triumph, her debut fiction Ghosts was a LoveReading Star Book, and now we are presented with the inexorable Good Material, her second novel, this time narrated by a male protagonist, and it's another absolute corker.

Meet Andy, a 35-year old balding, failed comedian with no savings who lodges with a 78-year-old tinned food collector. Jen is the woman he’s loved for three years, 10 months and 29 days who dumped him and smashed his heart like a Piñata.

As we flashback to happier times we are plunged into a revelatory journey of pain, of heartbreak and of self-discovery as Andy miserably tries to find his way through the grief, through the breakup, find his way forward. Heal. Heartbroken. 

Single at 35, as he wonders: "How can I have let myself believe, even for a second, that single thirty-something life would be an endless buffet of opportunities, when I know it is at best, small plates."

And so Alderton talks about lives in your 30s so perfectly pitched, so observationally spot on. The Sunday Times Agony Aunt and award-winning novelist uses her power, her knowledge, her material so brilliantly. And I couldn't put it down. From chuckle to howl and everything in between. I belly laughed my way through.

Yet again Alderton delivers a fresh, funny, relatable read that is so recognisable, so real. I bloody love her. She comments in the book: "This is why comedians make the best drinking companions. They will never have enough validation, enough success, enough love, enough good stories, enough material. And I wonder if this is what being an observational author like Alderton is like. Scribbling, magpie-ing material. Who cares? Just don't stop. I can't wait for the next one.

Deborah Maclaren

About Good Material

Every relationship has one beginning. This one has two endings. Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped.

Read the full description

Find This Book In