Review: Funny Girl

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Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Funny Girl is one of those books that is getting a lot of push and media attention, probably for the simple reason that it was written by Nick Hornby, the author of About a Boy among many other books. I had not read any of his stuff previously despite (or possibly because of) hearing positive reviews from several female friends. I guess I kind of assumed he was a writer that appealed more to the estrogen bubble. I'm not sure if that's a fair or accurate assessment of his novels but Funny Girl definitely didn't seem too "girly" to me.

I decided to slide this one into the top position of my to-read books because Amazon had it listed as a "Best Book of the Month" and they have not lead me astray yet. Also, I won a free copy of the book for review on Goodreads so I didn't really have an excuse not to. I need to start hacking through my review books so this was a good place to start.

I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised by Funny Girl. It's essentially about a girl named Barbara, who is from a po-dunk town in England, that wants to be a comedian. More specifically, she wants to be Britain's Lucille Ball. It follows her story as she leaves home to venture into show business and the successes and failures that follow.

I think most people would consider this novel a comedy but I have to admit that while it made me smirk a few times, I am not really the type to guffaw at books. For those who are, this may be the type of book that does it for you. Now, that isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the humor because I certainly did. It was quick-witted and felt very fresh... but I just laugh inside.

I have to admit that although this book wasn't anything I'd write in my journal about (and certainly isn't 'Best Book' worthy), I thoroughly enjoyed it and may bottle up my testosterone enough to read 'About a Boy.'



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