Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Posted 19th Dec 2023 by radiosarahc4 Comments on Good Material by Dolly Alderton 52 Books Blog

Here’s another book that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on.

I make no secret of the fact that I love Dolly Alderton’s work; I’m not embarrassed to say I’m a bit of a fan girl.

Her latest offering Good Material went straight on pre-order as soon as I heard about it.

What intrigued me most was that this time, she was writing about love and heartbreak from the perspective of a man.

Every relationship has one beginning.
This one has two endings.

Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy.
And he can’t work out why she stopped.

Now he is. . .
1. Without a home
2. Waiting for his stand-up career to take off
3. Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn’t looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak at a time when everything he thought he knew about women, and flat-sharing, and his friendships has transformed beyond recognition, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of their broken relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him.

Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend’s side of the story.

Oh, this is a good one.

I loved Andy, my heart ached for him as he embarked on one hell of a downward spiral. 

It’s perhaps an obvious comparison but Good Material reminded me a lot of High Fidelity, one of my favourite books of all time. Like Rob in High Fidelity, Andy becomes OBSESSED with working out what’s gone so wrong in his relationship.

Andy is thrown into a life he doesn’t recognise. When we first meet him, he’s living back in his childhood bedroom being look after by his mum. He lives for each pre-arranged phone call from Jen – even though, deep down, he knows these phone calls aren’t doing his mental health any good.

He’s already reached the neurotic stage of the breakup. My personal highlight was him buying loads of bottles of Armani She and binning them, so there’d be fewer opportunities for him to smell Jen’s preferred scent. 

His pettiness and bitterness were relatable, even if I was left cringing at some of his behaviour. 

I loved Alderton’s social commentary, her observations on life in your thirties are incredibly familiar.

Andy is grappling with his newfound (and unwanted) single status in a completely different landscape to what he’s experienced before. He’s no longer in his twenties, he no longer has crew of mates who are readily available for nights out on the pull.

While Andy’s been in a long-term relationship, his friends have been too. Most of them are now married with children. He finds he’s entitled to one big blow out with the lads as he attempts to mend his broken heart.

He finds himself unsure of who to talk to and sets himself a ‘Jen Quota’, in a bid to limit how much time he spends talking about her to his mates. He’s worried about boring other people; he’s slowly isolating himself.

Andy has his moments of madness. There’s a ridiculous living experiment that very quickly leads to a new eccentric roommate. There’s the inevitable, ill-judged fling with a woman in her early twenties that obviously ends in tears. And of course, he stops putting effort into his work but continues to feel resentment when his peers find success.

All this serves to feed Andy’s neuroses and his heartbreak journey plays out deliciously.

Though this is predominantly Andy’s story, I was pleased that we did get to hear Jen’s side too. By the end, I wanted to know why she’d called time on their relationship almost as much as Andy did. 

Getting her perspective was incredibly satisfying. I understood her reasoning and could see where she was coming from. 

I liked seeing them both get to a place where they were both happy. I liked that they were both making steps to fulfil their dreams and ambitions. I liked the fact they were able to have a final meeting and part amicably.

The end, however, is tinged with some sadness.

As a reader, you know what’s in store for Jen and Andy in just a few months’ time. Having that realisation, I couldn’t help but feel gutted for them both.

Despite that, I thought it was fitting for Alderton to end Jen and Andy’s story where she did. It was a smart move to leave readers with a bit of knowledge the characters didn’t have.

Having finished Good Material, I was struck by the similarities between men and women and how we deal with things.

I’ve always known that female friendships diverge as we get older, but, as stupid as it sounds, I hadn’t really considered that the same things happen to men too.

We’ve all wondered if we’re boring our friends by going on and on and on about a problem. We’ve all wondered if there’s some kind of time limit on grief. 

Our friends – like Andy’s – will always listen, they’ll always be there, it just might look a bit different than it did when we were younger.

Alderton’s created a bittersweet, tender and funny story about love and life – it’s gorgeous read.

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Journalist, writer, traveller, music lover, collector of hats, news addict, bookworm