You, Again

The novel opens with a funny, lively scene. Standing feet planted shoulder-width apart outside the Brooklyn Museum, Ari is collecting donations to protect «New Jersey's second-largest bobcat habitat». Her «open with a provocation» tactic — addressing someone who has just queued ten minutes for a six-dollar cold brew — fails on a tall man in glasses and expensive jeans, who snaps that he's on the phone and swerves around her. She reaches for his coffee: «Can I have a sip?» The scene establishes Ari's character at once — shameless, bold, a little chaotic.

Goldbeck builds Ari's life with humour but realistic detail: she came to New York for a comedy career but canvasses on the street; her roommate Natalie's «cosy» second bedroom is really a closet with a bunk bed; her mentor and bedmate Gabe spun her tales of the comedy world but works the till at a noodle shop. Ari and Gabe «watching» Inception in fourteen-minute instalments for three weeks sums up the novel's modern, ironic tone.

Then the rude man appears at the door — Josh Kestenberg, «Natalie's boyfriend». The switch to his point of view is the novel's strongest device: a clock ticks in Josh's head — according to plan, Natalie should in eight minutes be sipping Sancerre and watching him segment oranges, and tonight their relationship should be made official, with an exclamation mark. Instead he faces a pink-haired stranger in men's underwear and a cut-off «Obama HOPE» top. His thought «No — a full stop. That's better» wittily exposes his perfectionist, controlling nature.

The doorstep dialogue is the heart of the book: Ari agrees to let him in on one condition — that he «make up» for his rudeness that morning with a $40 donation. Josh thinks it's a scam, and Ari replies: «Yes, I go round every apartment in Brooklyn guilt-tripping my roommates' trust-fund boyfriends into regular giving.» Both characters are sharp, polar opposites, and attractive precisely for that — the classic Harry-and-Sally opening.

Weaknesses: the novel follows a familiar formula, and readers can guess the ending in advance. Coarse language and explicit sex start in the first chapter and recur throughout — not for every reader. In the Turkish translation some American jokes and cultural references get lost. Even so, for fans of the genre it is a smart, funny and contemporary rom-com.

• Third-person narration alternating between Ari's and Josh's perspectives
• A structure built on encounters repeated over the years
• Pop-culture references and the language of the comedy scene