Maggie, the 29-year-old heroine of Schitt’s Creek screenwriter Monica Heisey’s effortlessly readable debut novel, is trying to work out why her marriage has ended.
It turns into a superbly cutting, self-aware list, detailing everything from him putting hot sauce on every meal she lovingly crafts to her never doing the laundry and that his weed habit not being, in her view, ‘actually the same thing’ as her drinking two cups of coffee in the morning. She ends with a brilliantly sardonic shrug. ‘Anyway, it was over.’
And as Maggie slips into a tired, self-deprecating, post-break-up funk in Toronto, she leans on her friendship group for mainly unwanted advice and support.
Her mocking responses, nights out and body neuroses make Really Good, Actually feel very much like a Sex And The City for social media-obsessed millennials. One insists she goes on Tinder and there’s a whole chapter devoted to a list of messages.Skip in 5sContinue watchingSAS: Who Dares Wins’ Billy is ‘sure’ Ant Middleton will be watching new seriesafter the ad
The narrative – of a woman turning 30, newly single and trying to work herself out – is also interspersed with sharp Google search history lists, a telling insight into her bewildered state of mind.
All of which is very obviously going to be a smash-hit television series at some point. It’ll probably be very funny. In a novel, however, the vague sense of disquiet Maggie feels about being ‘damaged goods’ never gets fully explored.
Almost every time Heisey comes close to a serious idea about Maggie’s inner turmoil – she also went through divorce as a twentysomething – it’s bookended with a deadpan quip.
Which, ultimately, makes this story of a woman finding strength in friendships slightly frothy. But Maggie is a lot of fun to be around. Really fun, actually.
The verdict: An irresistible debut from one of the screenwriters behind the hit comedy series Schitt’s Creek
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey (Fourth Estate) is out now
