WEIRDO

Weirdo by Sara Pascoe, a review

Weirdo by Sara Pascoe, published in paperback by Faber in 2024. Length: 368 pages

I really enjoyed listening to comedian and writer Sara Pascoe on the most recent edition of Desert Island Discs, AKA the OG podcast!

She was refreshingly honest, wise and funny. All traits that are very much on display in her debut novel Weirdo, published back in 2023 by Faber. Last year the book was awarded the inaugural Dame Jilly Cooper Comedy Women in Print (CWIP) prize, but do not be fooled by the (well deserved) award: this is not a split your sides laughing experience and very much leans into the dark side of humour and feels all the better for it. If you enjoy Sara Pascoe’s stand-up, or her brilliant non-fiction writing, then I imagine you will like this book.

The Vibe: Sophie is struggling. In debt after a misguided trip to Australia, she’s in a dead-end job and a dead-end relationship. Her sister Dana is marrying Sophie’s ex-boyfriend and Sophie is obsessed with Chris, an old colleague who barely remembers her. Her mistakes are catching up with her and she needs to turn things around before it’s too late.

Thoughts and feelings: With deft plotting and strong set piece scenes the story is punctuated throughout with wickedly dark humour but is actually quite sad in places. However, there are glimmers of light and although Sophie is rather hopeless, she has a witty and occasionally laugh out loud turn of phrase.

There are certainly comic elements to the prose which is enjoyably interspersed with various items of correspondence to great comic effect, but this is by no means a rom-com. The person that Sophie needs to win over is herself. She is a flawed, recognisable and frustrating protagonist with a well observed and familiar supporting cast of characters. The story whisks us along on Sophie’s maddening journey of arrested development and there are many obstacles in her path. In the past, she has behaved impulsively and made disastrous decisions with long lasting consequences. She has been careless with people’s feelings mainly in response to the lack of care she has been shown.

Who will enjoy this? It’s not as mad-cap funny but I could draw comparisons with Bridget Jones and it has the melancholy note of an Anita Brookner story, but with a contemporary edge.

Final thoughts: Sophie’s internal monologue draws the reader in and provides insight to her complex emotional landscape. I particularly enjoyed the use of correspondence, without comment or caption, referred to by Sophie as ‘biographical evidence’. In particular, the emails and wedding invitation instructions from her sister Dana are excruciating, hilarious and delightfully observed. This device lifts the narrative out of the darker, emotional doldrums and provides some welcome comic relief, and we all need that.