Following
the success of his 2010 novel One Day,
which was then adapted into a (truly terrible) film starring Anne Hathaway (and
her truly terrible fake British accent), a lot of David Nicholls’s previous
novels have been re-published with the same types of front covers. One of these
said novels is The Understudy, a
comical look on the life of an unsuccessful actor still waiting for his “Big
Break”. The Daily Mail called it, as the front cover boasts, ‘a laugh-out-loud’
novel and it is – to an extent.
Chronicling
the misfortunes the ironically named Stephen C. McQueen, employing the C. so
that there would be “no misunderstandings”, the book is an easy read while
doesn’t require much of an attention span to get through. The characters have
only a medium depth to them, but this is not really an issue considering that
the aim is clearly to get laughs. Moreover, it is not the characters that a
reader will pick up this book for, but the language, which is very cleverly
employed. While there were some points that I thought would be better if it was
done x, y and z way, David Nicholls ultimately knows best and ultimately holds
the reader’s attention.
The plot
is reasonably straightforward, if not a little predictable. Stephen is the
anti-protagonist who spends most of his working days playing corpses in TV
detective dramas or playing a squirrel in a children’s programme which enjoys
more success aboard than at home. The most impressive gig that Stephen actually
has is his job as the understudy to the lead in a five-star rated West End show
about Lord Byron, unimaginatively named “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know”. The
title role itself is being played by a top-British actor named Josh Harper, a
name which immediately inspires the image of a posh, mindless, coke-stuffing
playboy actor whose success is truly owed to his looks rather than his talent.
Much like Stephen, the readers are left to cringe at an imagined gushing
interview done with this fictional actor in a Sunday paper by a stereotypically
brainless female interviewer (It embarrasses me and most of woman kind I think
to realise that some interviews with vaguely good looking actors do follow this
stereotype), and roll their eyes at his selfish and self-centred actions
throughout the novel.
Stephen is
an unusual character in the sense that on the one hand he is easy to sympathise
with, especially when he is duped several times by Josh into several
compromising situations. The first of many comes when Stephenn, thinking (and
hoping) that he might have his chance to go on stage, is pimped to the post at
the last minute when Josh turns up at just as he's getting into costume. This leads to a
humiliating misunderstanding when he “invites” Stephen to his showbiz party,
only for Stephen realise that he is actually being hired to waiter!
It is at
this party that Stephen meets to object of his affections, Josh’s unremarkable
American wife Nora. Although in the blurb she is characterised as being ‘clever’
and ‘funny’, the words ‘blunt’ and ‘boring’
were my own words to describe her. While she does have her moments in the
novel, or rather a few funny quips, she is ultimately not a very inspiring
character. If anything she is a little bit too much of a stereotypical bolshie
American girl from New York. Despite Stephen’s obsession with her, it is
difficult to really find any sympathy in their relationship or really maintain
any interest with it.
I feel
this might come from the fact that when it comes to Nora, Stephen ceases to be
sympathetic. When he happens upon Josh having sex with the show’s ‘exciting new
talent’ Maxine Cole in his dressing room, the big-headed sex god talks Stephen
into keeping his mouth shut by promising him to pull a sickie for two nights so
that he can play the lead role in the show and, presumably, get his big break.
Naturally, Stephen agrees, and thus goes through the book continuously lying to
Nora in a bid to keep the deal with Josh. He fools himself into thinking it’s
all right while Josh repeatedly finds himself falling into every woman who
proves herself willing to let him in, and there are apparently plenty. Much
like a bigoted husband trying to justify his philandering to his angry wife,
Josh’s defence is that he has a ‘sickness’ – that he is a sex addict. This is
bollocks, of course, and Stephen knows it. Yet he accepts it. Josh, needless to
say, is not a very exciting or even compelling antagonist.
The
trouble is that it is hard to really ‘feel’ for Stephen’s relationship with
Nora and it’s hard to tell whether it’s because of him, her or both of them. It
might even be because the reader agrees with Nora that acting is a ‘pointless’
job, not least because Stephen’s ex-wife and daughter feel this way. Of all the
few females who appear in this novel, it is the ex-wife Alison who speaks the
most sense. At one point when confronting her ex about his delusions about his
career, about waiting for his break, she makes her thoughts plainly and
brutally:
They sat in silence for
a moment, looking at each other, eyes narrowed.
‘You don’t think I’m any good, do you?’ said Stephen,
finally.
‘No.’
‘Well, that’s the impression you give, Alison. I mean, if
you do think I’m good then why don’t
you support me?’
‘Hold on, Stephen, sorry, but I don’t think you
understood me. What I meant was – no, I don’t
think you’re any good.’
A moment passed.
‘You don’t?’
‘No. No, I don’t.’
Again, a moment.
‘Since when?’
Alison closed her eyes. ‘Never […] Sorry.’ (pp. 306-7)
All
through the novel, the reader is indeed treated to the true extent of Stephen’s
delusions and dreams about his career. Early on in the novel, Nicholls treats
us to what he calls Stephen’s ‘Nearly CV’, the CV he would have had had he
actually won the countless auditions he went to and didn’t get. His lack of
success and foolish faith that his hour will come is not only to the distress
of Alison but his eight-year-old daughter, Sophie, who feels frequently humiliated
by her father’s antics. Admittedly, Sophie is something of a pretentious and
annoying little brat, influenced by her equally pretentious stepfather Colin,
who constantly undermines Stephen. When talking about Sophie’s Christmas
present of a piano, Colin suggests that Stephen might want to contribute
something, ‘the piano stool or some sheet-music or something.’ Stephen does
deserve to be undermined in some ways, but the characters who do it to him are
usually very annoying so you still side with him. In regards to Sophie, while
she can be dismissed as a bit of a brat her feelings are understandable, as any
girl who has ever had a waste-of-space for a father would tell you.
Ultimately
the end of The Understudy is somewhat
satisfying although the conclusion is predictable. You will put the book down
knowing that Stephen has done right the thing and, more importantly, learned
his lesson. I definitely would recommend it for a quick read, like a long
train-ride or to read during lunch breaks. While not the most compelling of
novels, it isn’t supposed to be. It is a just a piece of harmless fun where the
baddies get what they deserve and the goodies end up with a reasonable,
satisfying lot. While we don’t know whether Stephen will be getting his happy
ending, and too be honest we don't really care.
6/10
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6/10
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