Feminist rating: 2.0 Unfortunately, almost everything about the Understudy fails to do justice to the radical notion that women are valuable people with much to contribute to society. All of the worn out Rom-Com tropes about women (and men) are maintained. Although this could be an example of Nicholls’ magnificently self-aware and self-mocking style – I really hope so…
” Stephen C. McQueen had two CVs.
David Nicholls, The Understudy
Alongside the real-life résumé of all the things he had actually achieved, there was the Nearly CV. This was the good-luck version of his life, the one where the close shaves and the near misses and the second choices had all worked out; the version where he hadn’t been knocked off his bike on the way to that audition, or come down with shingles during the first week of rehearsal.”
We can all relate to Stephen C. McQueen (no relation), the lead character of David Nicholls’ hilarious novel The Understudy. I distinctly recall penning the line “I think I would be the understudy in the film version of my life” several years ago following a string of bad luck. Unfortunately for Stephen, this is the reality of being the comic lead in a book about failure in the arts.
The comic genius behind Nicholl’s work lies in his astute observations about life in all its mess and disappointment. His dry humour knows few bounds and sometimes hits a little too close to home – reading Starter for Ten during my first few weeks of university felt distinctly surreal! The Understudy takes the definition of cringe-worthy and fleshes it out into whole new out-of-shape-middle-aged-man dimensions. The wonderful thing about the main character Stephen C. McQueen is his absolute averageness. In fact, in several ways, Stephen is below average. He is passionately committed to a career that he is aggressively bad at. Yet, even as we cringe at Stephen’s incredible lack of self-awareness, the reader is rooting for Stephen’s lucky break in life, in love and on the stage, more than anything. Because if a character like Stephen C. McQueen can do it, we all can.
At the heart of The Understudy is a somewhat worn-out rom-com plot. But I think it works precisely because we can identify with this struggling actor who is never, ever going to get the girl. (Or is he? Maybe?) As with his other work, Nicholls is a genius of trope-subversion. Chapter-by-chapter, he takes us on a walk through the major tropes of romantic comedies and drains everything he can out of each stereotype before flipping it aside. It works precisely because we know that The Understudy is a work of satire and precisely because it orientates the reader, providing us with an excellent roadmap with just enough information about the road ahead to put us at ease without becoming boring.
The initial meet cute between Stephen and his movie-star-handsome colleague’s wife, Nora, at a glamourous Hollywood-style party that Stephen thought he was invited to, is as obvious as it is hilarious. Incredibly, side-splittingly obvious. But as we are orientated to the world from Stephen’s perspective, we are constantly surprised by his bad luck, precisely because he lacks the awareness to see himself. It’s like waiting for the last person at the party to get the joke: painful, cringe-worthy and hilarious.
Nicholls’ masterful representation of the underdog characterises much of his work. But none is as refreshing as The Understudy. All along, we are spoon-fed this presentation of Stephen as a danger to himself, bumbling through life and bad at everything he does. Yet the predictable ending we want never comes, we are left anticipating a happy ending that doesn’t quite deliver. And that’s the genius of the novel: all the way through, we are provided with a roadmap that aligns neatly with one final destination, yet when we get there, the bitter-sweet shift in perspective on life, love and the stage is not quite what we wanted.
So, enjoy the ride. It will have you choking with laughter one minute and cringing on behalf of the not-so-romantic lead the next, but The Understudy is anything but a predictable rom-com. It is a darkly comic reflection on that age-old adage ‘life owes you nothing’. It teaches us to enjoy the failures, the disappointments and challenges of pursuing a creative career all the same. It’s a heart-warming and hilarious tribute to all those struggling to pursue their dream. To “find the thing you love, and do it with all your heart, to the absolute best of your ability, no matter what people say.”
Overall rating: 5.0 Yes, I know it’s not really good in its presentation of women, but the sheer hilarity of the story wins. Nicholls isn’t kind to any of his characters really – they are just real people struggling through life and most of us can relate to that…
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