Romantic Comedy

Sally Milz is the narrator and central protagonist of the novel—a relatable romantic heroine who finds love despite herself. Sally is a comedy writer in her late 30s who has become so comfortable in her life that she’s become stagnant. She doesn’t really date, and she has no ambitions to move up the ladder of writers at her live televised sketch-comedy show, The Night Owls. Sally has dreams of becoming a screenplay writer, focusing her stories on strong, more modern female leads. She is exasperated by her male-dominated work environment, in which a woman must become one of the guys in order to fit in. Sally’s gender puts her at a disadvantage in this environment, but she has learned how to desexualize herself in the workplace, particularly after she was rejected romantically by the head writer, Elliot, with whom she was in love. Sally has internalized insecurities about her body, her looks, and her womanhood, a product of systemic cultural misogyny. These insecurities have made Sally put up a self-protective wall between her and the world, in which romance is inaccessible because it’s unnecessary and cheesy. Sally believes herself to be an average-looking woman whose only attractive qualities are her wit and intelligence.