Three Great Books #31

A breakup in London, later-in-life love, and the cost of a job.

Good Material, by Dolly Alderton

I almost called this a rom com, but the precipitating event is a breakup rather than a romance. And it’s no spoiler to say that the London-based couple, Andy and Jen, do not get back together. So it’s a post-rom com, focusing on how 35-year-old comedian Andy deals with the abrupt end of a relationship he thought would go the distance. (He begins with a list called “Reasons Why It’s Good I’m Not With Jen,” which includes the petty — “Always on me about biting my nails” — and the heartbreaking — “Pretended she’s unsure about wanting children…but I think she just didn’t want children with me.”) He’s surrounded by an entertaining supporting cast, including his new roommate Morris, a retired man who writes fan letters to Julian Assange in prison. As Andy navigates his newly single life, he is also struggling to progress in his comedy career, and trying to maintain his formerly close connections with his group of friends, most of whom are pairing off and having children. (In short: welcome to your mid-thirties, Andy!) We get Jen’s perspective at the very end, including her list of “Reasons Why It’s Good I’m Not With Andy,” and an explanation of her ambivalence not only about Andy, but about what marriage and motherhood so often ask of women. Funny and moving; you will wish them both well.

Leaving, by Roxana Robinson

“Leaving” is also about the joys and hazards of love, but its characters are further along in life and the stakes are much higher. Sarah and Warren dated when they were young, until she broke up with him, seemingly out of the blue. Decades later (they’re both 60), they run into each other at the opera, and get reacquainted. Sarah is divorced from the guy she picked over Warren, with two grown children, and Warren is settled in a long, somewhat lukewarm marriage, with one adult daughter. But as he and Sarah rekindle their romance, his marriage begins to feel unbearable and he resolves to leave. His determined self-extrication from that relationship is painful for everyone; it absolutely levels his wife, Janet, and provokes his daughter, Kat, to lay down an ultimatum. It’s hard not to empathize with everyone in this novel. Robinson makes you understand the pull of a second (and perhaps final) chance at deep, grown-up love, as well as the devastating fallout for other people. She also beautifully portrays another kind of love, between parents and their children, and how the balance of power between them shifts over time. This is a good one to read with a book club or in tandem with a friend, because once you finish it you are immediately going to want to discuss the ending.

Private Equity: A Memoir, by Carrie Sun

I’ve already mentioned my deep nosiness when it comes to what people actually do all day at their corporate jobs. Sun’s memoir gives a glimpse of life at a very successful hedge fund, where she worked as an assistant to the billionaire founder. (She calls him “Boone Prescott,” and the fund “Carbon,” but those are pseudonyms.) With math and finance degrees from M.I.T. and a successful stint at Fidelity, Sun seems like an unlikely candidate for an assistant position, and the recruiter wonders why she isn’t more ambitious. But Sun, who is finishing up a creative writing workshop and has a wealthy, extremely problematic fiancé that she’s on the verge of ditching, says she wants a job “so I can afford to figure out my life.” It’s clear from the very first day at Carbon that she’s not going to have time to figure out anything, let alone her life. Boone may have a nice-guy reputation, but her job is “to make the world work” for him, which means her work day never ends and she must respond quickly to him at any time, even if he’s just emailing her cute pictures of his kids. Her job comes with over-the-top benefits (luxury gym with free Lululemon gear, extravagant gifts from Boone, lavish company events), but it demands everything from her, and her physical and mental health suffer. This is more of an inside peek into the excesses of capitalism rather than a scathing analysis of same, but Sun’s journey, and the casual racism and sexism she endured to get where she is, make for a compelling story.