Funny Girl (book)
Nick Hornby at his best
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby is a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Set in the swinging sixties, it tells the story of young actress Barbara Parker, who moves from the British provincial town of Blackpool to the big city of London, where she finds fame and a measure of fortune under the stage name of Sophie Straw as the star of the comedy series Barbara (& Jim).
In addition to 'funny girl' Sophie, the story is also about her vain co-star Clive, the sympathetic producer/director Dennis and even the two talented screenwriters Bill and Tony are extensively discussed. Probably no coincidence since Hornby is also active as a screenwriter and received an Oscar nomination, among other things, for his script of An Education, with Carey Mulligan.
Screenwriter Bill becomes more and more open about his homosexuality as the story progresses, while his skeptical colleague Tony - who isn't very sexual anyway - marries a dramaturge who understands him better than himself. Sophie herself is so irresistible that she doesn't really need a dramatic arc. With the exception of a few bad days, Sophie is always doing well, unlike the other characters, who struggle a bit more with themselves and life.
Dennis is trapped in a bad marriage, while Clive never quite manages to live up to his own lofty expectations as an actor and as a person. Sophie's "secret" is that she likes to entertain people, but outside of that she doesn't have many expectations and takes life as it comes.
You could call that superficial, but it gives Sophie something more fascinating, as if her laconic and lively attitude were in fact something worth pursuing. Yes, Funny Girl is set in a male-dominated world, but in this particular case that often seems more difficult for the men, who have to determine their position relative to each other, than for the woman in their midst, whose star rises faster than she herself thought possible.
Hornby may look to the past through rose-colored glasses, but his love letter to a fictitious actress is so smooth and light-hearted that we'll happily forgive him. And that light-footedness has always been his strength.
The man who broke through with books on real boy topics such as football (Fever Pitch), music (Hi-Fidelity), and boys who don't want to (or dare) grow up (About A Boy) has become such an established name that you can see his later work (Funny Girl is from 2014) might take notice. I don't know why I've only gotten around to it now, but Funny Girl is a really great book!