REVIEW: Funny Guy by Emma Barry
Dear Emma Barry,
I loved Chick Magnet, released earlier this year and was excited to read Funny Guy, although I knew from your social media posts that it is a very different book. Different is fine – but unfortunately Funny Guy didn’t work quite as well for me as I’d hoped.
Sam Leyland is a stand-up comedian who works on a New York-based live TV show ‘Comedy Hour’. He’s funny but gets into trouble a lot and self-identifies as an asshole. It’s obvious that Comedy Hour is based, at least loosely, on Saturday Night Live.
You clearly say in your author’s note at the end that none of the characters are based on real people but it’s difficult not to make connections to actual humans. At least, it was for me. While Sam is described as physically quite different to a certain former SNL performer who has guest hosted recently, I couldn’t help but insert the real person into the storyline and I found it jarring. Part of this is that I personally do not find that person attractive but part of it is that I prefer my fiction to stay fictional. When real life starts to blur into a romance novel it tends not to work as well for me. I have deliberately not said the real-life comedian’s name because if I had not made the connection between him and this book I think I’d have enjoyed it better and I want to give other readers the chance to live in ignorant bliss.
When I could wrench my mind away from picturing the real life man and thought only of Sam I enjoyed the book better.
Funny Guy is a somewhat darker book than Chick Magnet. Even though Sam is a comedian, his comedy is based on his painful childhood. He grew up in abusive household and lived in poverty. His best friend, Bryony (Bree) Edwards grew up in the same trailer park in Ohio. They know everything there is to know about one another. Bree knows the painful secrets that form the basis of Sam’s comedy. She knows that a lot it isn’t actually a joke.
Bree has been in love with Sam for 17 years but she’s never told him. He’s too important to her to risk their friendship and Sam is notoriously bad at relationships. In fact, the book begins with his latest romantic disaster the cause of yet more trouble for him: his ex-girlfriend, Salem, a pop star (I couldn’t help but think of Taylor Swift even though, as far as I know, Tay Tay has never been romantically connected to [redacted]), has written a song about Sam called “Lost Boy”. Sam is humiliated by it and he’s not coping well. The media are all over him and members of the public are loudly speculating about the song and him when he’s nearby (rude!).
Sam has long thought his career success was basically on a knife’s edge. He’s destined to slip and make a bloody mess at some point and ruin everything. He just knows it. But he can’t help but stay on the edge and tempt fate.
Bree wishes Sam would look after himself better, maybe get some therapy, think better of himself. Bree also has realised that she needs to separate herself from Sam in order to have a real life of her own. Sam overshadows every part of her existence – he’s bigger than life and she loves him. While Sam doesn’t intentionally take advantage of Bree, he nonetheless does and Bree lets him. It’s a weirdly co-dependent relationship. It …did not always seem healthy to me.
Bree is an urban planner with a passion for sustainability and functionality for everyone in the community, not just the wealthy, not just home/business -owners. She’s reached the pinnacle of where she can go in New York and has a chance to run her own team within a prestigious firm based in Michigan but she will work all over the US and even in other countries if she takes the job and moves. However, moving would be moving away from Sam, whose role at Comedy Hour would keep him in New York. Bree dreads telling Sam. He will feel betrayed and abandoned and Bree does not want to add to his abandonment issues. But she also knows it’s time for her to do something for herself so that she can move on. She cannot bear to watch Sam fall in love (again) and for her to have no relationship because she’s pining for Sam all the time. Her boss in New York doesn’t hate Sam but urges Bree to take the job and do something for herself. She gives her some good advice when Bree asks her how one knows if they’re doing the right thing.
“You don’t,” she finally said in answer to Bree’s question. “Not at the time. Right and wrong are labels you apply after the fact, and they’re lies half the time anyway. You don’t know what would’ve happened if you’d taken the other path, and you don’t know if you’ve chosen wisely. That Robert Frost guy was a liar.”
Due to the publicity around “Lost Boy”, Sam stays in Bree’s apartment for a while to lie low and in that time, the dynamic between the pair shifts. Bree was already dreading telling Sam about the job in Michigan but when they move from friends to lovers that dread becomes existential. I think we all know where it’s headed.
Perhaps it’s not just my mental association with Mr. Real Life and Sam that was the problem. Sam was somewhat difficult for me to like. Some of his behaviours were self-destructive and he’s a very needy guy. I often thought the pressure he put on Bree was unfair. There were times when I wondered why Bree loved him so much, why she put up with his bullshit. To his credit, Sam sometimes wonders the same thing.
The book ends happily of course. But more importantly perhaps, by the end, Sam is a better person and isn’t as reliant on Bree for his mental equilibrium. At least, not the way he was.
I found Sam a little difficult to connect with. There were times when I could and those were the bits I enjoyed the most – when I couldn’t, the reverse applied. I liked Bree and her friends from work who saw her as so much more than just Sam’s best friend and who wanted her to see herself that way too. I liked the parts about Bree’s job and how she made things better for the people she worked for (and I don’t (just) mean her employer).
Overall, Funny Guy was a bit of a mixed bag for me.
Grade: B-
Regards,
Kaetrin
Would you have liked the book better if you hadn’t read the first book or made the association between Sam and whatshisname? I haven’t read either so I don’t know how the two books differ, but if you and I are thinking of the same SNL actor, I’m with you.
Darlynne, would you be willing to email me to tell me who the real life performer is? Since it would ruin the book for Kaetrin to focus on it. I would be grateful. My email is janineballard @ gmail.
@Janine: I have no idea, you’ll have to ask Kaetrin. Based on what she wrote, I immediately thought of an SNL performer I don’t care for, but who may not be who she means. Sorry.
@Darlynne: No worries, thanks.
@Kaetrin, you don’t have to answer either if it’s going to ruin the book for you. I’m just curious.
@Janine: I guess I wasn’t clear in my review. Thinking of this particular comic did have an impact on my enjoyment of the book. There are no future books knowing his name may impact as far as I’m aware.
I’ll email you!
@Darlynne: The two books are not in the same universe – there is no link between them at all so I don’t think reading order matters at all. They’re very different books in vibe and tone overall. I didn’t hate Funny Guy by any stretch but it wasn’t as successful for me as Chick Magnet was.
@Janine: I remember in the pitch for this that it was mentioned that Pete Davidson is the inspiration for the MMC.
@Jayne: Thanks. Kaetrin already emailed me but I remember now.
@Jayne:
I saw a recent advertisement for a water featuring him and thought he could also benefit from sunlight, vitamins, a healthy meal and eight hours of sleep.
@Jenreads: I have to admit that I haven’t followed SNL in years so I had to look him up when the book was offered to us. And yeah, he looked as if he would benefit from a little self-care.