Really good, actually : a novel

Title:

Author:

Summary:

Maggie is fine. She’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée. Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and “get back out there” sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way. Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with sharp observations,Really Good, Actually is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love, friendship, and our search for that thing we like to call “happiness”. This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction. -- Amazon.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

370 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Romance fiction.

Humorous fiction.

Subject Term:

Divorced women -- Fiction.

Single women -- Fiction.

Dating (Social customs) -- Fiction.

Female friendship -- Fiction.

Self-actualization (Psychology) -- Fiction.

Publisher:

William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9780063235410

Publication Information:

New York : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2023]

Call Number:

HEISEY

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003669713	New Adult Fiction	HEISEY Monica	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

"Every sentence of Monica Heisey's writing is a treat. No one makes me laugh like she does." --Dolly Alderton, New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Know About Love

Recommended by Los Angeles Times * Washington Post * GQ * Elle * Good Morning America * People * Guardian * The Times * E! News Online * The Globe and Mail * Toronto Star * The Week * New York Post * Shondaland * and many more!

A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about one woman's messy search for joy and meaning in the wake of an unexpected breakup, from comedian, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter Monica Heisey

Maggie is fine. She's doing really good, actually. Sure, she's broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée(tm).

Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and "get back out there" sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way.

Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with sharp observations, Really Good, Actually is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love, friendship, and our search for that thing we like to call "happiness". This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

"A prime example of how a storyteller's voice can pull you right in and keep you clinging to every sentence. . . . This is a book I will give to my closest girlfriends and say, 'You have to read this.'" -- Zibby Owens, GoodMorningAmerica.com

"Tremendously funny and thoughtful." -GQ

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Comedian and TV writer Heisey delivers an appealing debut novel (after the essay collection I Can't Believe It's Not Better) about a 28-year-old stalled PhD candidate left adrift after her divorce. Maggie's former husband, Jon, departs with their cat, and, despite their mutual promises to have a "Good Divorce," Jon is soon incommunicado, and Maggie is surprised by how much she struggles with being alone. She stays up most nights streaming crime shows she terms "British murder television" and is disappointed that she remains "annoyingly committed" to habits such as ordering late-night burgers. Maggie progresses to online dating (the men in Maggie's area of Toronto are "bearded and left-leaning"), and after striking out there, she tries exercise classes and creative writing workshops, but wherever she joins up, she's "wall to wall with the recently dumped." Later, the grief for her marriage morphs into a kind of self-obsessed nihilism that alienates her closest friends and torpedoes a burgeoning relationship with a nice guy. Even in its darkest moments the book is very funny, and Heisey's inspired skewering of urban millennial life hits the mark. Readers will gobble up this Bridget Jones's Diary for the smartphone era. Agent: Marya Spence, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Jan.)

Library Journal Review

DEBUT Canadian comedian and TV writer Heisey takes readers along for a journey through divorce and dating in Toronto in her first novel. The heroine is 29-year-old Maggie, who is already divorced after briefly marrying her college sweetheart. After her now-ex-husband Jon walks out (taking the cat with him!), she struggles to afford rent and keep herself going day-to-day. She falls into a depression buffered by late-night burger delivery and a supporting cast of friends and advisors who try to coerce her into attending themed parties and "getting out there" again via online dating. Maggie soon meets Simon, another damaged soul, and their casual sex turns into a deeper connection that seems likely to be doomed by self-sabotage. VERDICT There are some funny moments in this light read, but Heisey goes a little over the top in trying to represent peak millennialism via Maggie's sexual exploration and niche interests. The characters are mostly relatable, all flaws properly accounted for, although they come across as exaggerated examples of personality types.--Chelsie Harris