Him Her Him Again the End of Him by Patricia Marx

Him Her Him Again the End of Him
By Patricia Marx; Scribner
ISBN: 9780743296243
6.7/10 Dropps

ISBN: 9780743296243

6.7/10 Dropps

This first—and only—full novel by past Saturday Night Live (and Rugrats) staff writer Patricia Marx starts out promising, but ultimately fails to deliver due to too many flat jokes and an unshakeable tone of self-satisfied smugness not backed up by any real humor or an intriguing plot line to speak of. It’s redeemed only by the fact that the same conversational tone upheld throughout the book that can be so grating at times also serves to make it a quick and compulsive read. At a certain point, the narrator builds up enough familiarity with the reader that it’s almost as if you’re having a conversation with a friend or acquaintance you don’t really like, but whose story is so outrageously and pathetically ridiculous that you can’t help but to continue listening just for the laughs you know you’ll get when you recount it to people later.

The story line mirrors the title of the book exactly. A Cambridge graduate student meets a young professor named Eugene Obello on her first day in town and inexplicably falls head over heels in love with him, despite the fact that all descriptions of his personality as well as every preternaturally obnoxious word that comes out of his mouth seem like they would have the exact opposite effect on basically any woman I’ve ever met. After he gets married and has a child with an equally annoying and pretentious woman, the narrator remains obsessed with him, fails to complete her thesis, and moves back across the pond to New York City where she effectively fails to hold down a number of (admittedly) humorously terrible jobs with various television programs. Eugene eventually follows her over and they resume their affair despite his wife and child, until he mercilessly and finally meets a terrible, fitting end and the relationship is over for good.

The fact that the narrator’s obsession with Eugene is never thoroughly explained or understood lends to the impression that the whole thing, and the entire plot of the novel as an extension of this, is supposed to be a joke. This would be fine, except that it’s really just not that funny. None of the main characters are that likeable or relatable (except for a few of the men that the narrator tosses aside to continue her maddening quest for Eugene). There are a few laugh-out-loud moments, but more often than not it just gives one the urge to slap the “unabashedly neurotic heroine” in the face. If you can make it through to the end, however, the multiple appendixes are by far the funniest part.
-Nicole Marie Rea