Reese Witherspoon has selected Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy as the latest pick for her popular book club.
Sittenfeld’s seventh novel, published Tuesday by Random House, follows a comedy writer for a Saturday Night Live–style series with a crush on a pop star who is hosting and performing on the show. A critic for Kirkus called the book “a pleasure, balancing probing analysis with an absorbing narrative” and a “romance artfully and entertainingly deconstructed.”
In an interview with Variety, Sittenfeld said her novel was inspired by her family’s habit of watching Saturday Night Live during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I thought to myself: Someone should write a screenplay for a romantic comedy about a woman who’s a writer at a place like SNL who writes a sketch making fun of the phenomenon of men from the show dating these stunningly beautiful, super famous celebrities who are guests on the show—and how that phenomenon doesn’t seem to happen with the female writer and the gorgeous, famous male celebrity,” she said. “It tends to only happen in one direction.” (Is “one direction” a reference to past SNL host and musical guest Harry Styles? Only Sittenfeld knows for sure.)
Witherspoon—who, as the star of Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama, knows a thing or two about romantic comedies—announced her selection of Sittenfeld’s novel on Instagram.
“It is such a hilarious, sweet, smart read that I think you're going to love!!” she wrote. “Read along with us and discuss it all month long @ReesesBookClub—and just wait until you get to Part 2!!” She ended the post with an “exploding head” emoji.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
