Not so funny novel

The turning point in Barbara's life comes when she wins a beauty contest — then turns it down. She realizes that being Miss Blackpool means having to stay in Blackpool carrying out her responsibilities for the next year. Inspired by I Love Lucy — this is 1950s England — and determined to become the next Lucille Ball, she leaves her father behind and heads for London. In short order she does become England's Lucille Ball and the star of a hit television comedy. She also gets a new name — Sophie Straw.

This is the beginning, and in fact the best part, of Nick Hornby's 2014 novel Funny Girl. Show business novels tend to bore me, and this one is no exception. The novel covers Sophie's life, right up to her old age, yet it never again rises to the level of those opening chapters.

The hit show is Barbara (and Jim), and the lead character played by Sophie happens to be a beautiful young woman from Blackpool named Barbara. Although someone with no acting experience whatsoever, Sophie stars, while Jim is played by a famous actor named Clive, disgruntled at being trapped forever in parenthesis.

Hornby traces the evolving relationship of Sophie and Clive, as well as the show's producer, Dennis, and its writers, Tony and Bill. The story, such as it is, never really develops into anything compelling.

The author's worst mistake may be that he never convinces us that Sophie really is a "funny girl." He tells us that she is the equal of Lucille Ball, but he never actually shows us. The closest he comes is in an early scene, my favorite passage in the novel, when Sophie comes to audition for a bit part in a planned, still unnamed television show and wows the writers with her witty and insightful comments. That's how she lands the lead role. After that, she's just not very funny at all, nor is the story. For that matter, neither is Lucille Ball when she makes a brief appearance.