Franny Banks is a struggling actress in New York City, with just six months left of the three year deadline she gave herself to succeed. But so far, all she has to show for her efforts is a single line in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a degrading waitressing job. She lives in Brooklyn with two roommates-Jane, her best friend from college, and Dan, a sci-fi writer, who is very definitely not boyfriend material-and is struggling with her feelings for a suspiciously charming guy in her acting class, all while trying to find a hair product cocktail that actually works.
Meanwhile, she dreams of doing "important" work, but only ever seems to get auditions for dishwashing liquid and peanut butter commercials. It's hard to tell if she'll run out of time or money first, but either way, failure would mean facing the fact that she has absolutely no skills to make it in the real world. Her father wants her to come home and teach, her agent won't call her back, and her classmate Penelope, who seems supportive, might just turn out to be her toughest competition yet.
Behold, the abuser of the comma! Lauren Graham, do, avoid, overusing, this, please, it got a bit, annoying. Okay, I'm kidding! There were a few too many commas for my taste, but that's more of a pet hate of mine than actual criticism of Lauren's relatively new book.
I have always been a fan of Lauren Graham, so be forewarned that I am a little bit biased. However, I'm being 100% honest when I say that I fucking loved this book! The clever dialogue, the wit, the pacing, the little diary (Filofax) entries and doodles, all of it was absolutely top notch. That's a really weird phrase, top notch, and I hope to never use it again.
Someday, Someday, Maybe feels like a warm hug from a talented and hilariously awkward friend. On every page our protagonist, Franny, would show off her wit or her shyer, more awkward side, and I'd fall in heterosexual friendship love all over again. This world of Franny's (and Lauren's) is very new to me, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I've not grown up around acting and film, and I keep my recitations of Shakespeare to my bedroom.
Despite me not understanding anything in the world of acting, the only words I can use to describe this book are authentic, real, relatable, honest (that's an inside joke if you've read the book, btw). Genuinely, though, I adore this book. Lauren Graham wrote these characters and this story in a way that made the whole thing totally believable, and I found it very easy to slip into Franny's shoes.
Although this is Lauren Graham's debut novel, I didn't get a very big 'newbie' vibe from the book, which is rare because I'm usually the first book snob to be like "Well, you can so tell it's the author's first book." It was surprisingly well written, and I learnt far more about life and myself than I ever expected to from a book about an aspiring actress in New York.
I loved Franny's relationships with the people around her, particularly her dad (their relationship reminds me a little of mine and my dad's) and her roommates. Dan is kind of a love interest towards the end–we know they're made for each other–but throughout the book we see more of a certain very attractive actor. I really didn't like him, he's a total douche bag and tailor made for Hollywood. Franny and Dan don't have much of a relationship when you first start the book, but they do develop a freaking fantastic one towards the end. I'd call the men in Franny's life all very unique possibilities; they're all very different and thus Franny's life with either of them would be too.
Of course, I can't review this book without mentioning Jane and Franny's unwavering friendship throughout the book. There aren't any petty fights over guys, no competing with each other, they're simply best friends who never lose sight of their friendship or themselves. I respect these characters a lot.
I loved every second of this journey, although it was quite a short one as I finished this book in a day, but it felt like I lived all of Franny's days with her. Dan would probably describe this book much better than me, maybe add a little more flair. If I was going to try summing it up in just one sentence, I'd choose this fantastic Franny Banks quote: Dead, unknown, a cat, or Bill Cosby.
No comments:
Post a Comment