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Twelve days after first receiving an email from Noah, and one week after their first phone call, Sally begins a long drive to Los Angeles to meet him. She’s nervous about looking disheveled after so many months in quarantine, but Noah looks different too because he shaved his head. Even though Noah has told her he’s long been attracted to her, Sally isn’t altogether sure that their reunion is meant to be romantic or sexual, though she wants it to be. She stops a few times along the drive and makes it to California in about two days.
Finally, Sally arrives at Noah’s mansion in Topanga Canyon. Noah shows her around and brings her to her room. Sally wishes they had clarified the nature of the visit. She isn’t sure if her separate room indicates that Noah isn’t sexually interested in her or that he wants to respect her space. Sally makes the first move and kisses Noah. After he gives her a Mad Lib designed especially for her, they discuss the kiss, and Noah admits that he doesn’t want to make her feel pressured, especially after the time things got awkward between them at TNO’s after-after-party. They kiss again, and Sally suggests that they jump the gun and have sex.
Sally and Noah have passionate sex three times. Sally wakes up in the early morning, uncomfortable because she has to have a bowel movement and doesn’t want to do it in Noah’s vicinity. She finds a random guest bathroom to relieve herself but realizes that all her clothes and toiletries are still in the car. She goes to the guest bedroom, full of anxiety and trying to think of a way to tell Noah that she’d be more comfortable staying in a hotel. She falls asleep in the guest bedroom, where Noah wakes her up with coffee later that morning. He understands that it’s awkward to wake up in an unfamiliar house and retrieves her belongings from her car.
Noah goes out to his backyard to work out with his trainer. Sally calls Viv, nervous about potentially running out of things to talk about with Noah and remaining in a perpetually weird place with him. Viv encourages her to live in the moment and not think of their future. Noah texts Sally after his workout and she invites him into the guest room, where they discuss their most recent relationships. Noah has recently cut off an on-again-off-again romance with an heiress named Louisiana, whereas Sally hasn’t dated anyone at all since a man she was hooking up with got a girlfriend. Noah admits that he didn’t have sex at all in 2019, which surprises Sally.
In the afternoon, Noah’s beloved housekeepers Margit and Glenn arrive. While they work around the house, Noah and Sally swim in his pool, and Sally is pleasantly surprised that she’s not as self-conscious in her bathing suit as she thought she would be. Noah brings Sally into his studio and plays music for her. Sally is moved by his talent and wonders if she’s already falling in love with him.
For the next three nights, Sally wakes up early and moves to the guest bedroom to get more sleep until the fourth morning, when she wakes up and stays in bed with Noah. As their time together extends, Sally discovers that she wants him close to her all the time. Noah suggests that Sally quit TNO and stay in Los Angeles to pursue her screenwriting career. Sally admits that as much fun as she’s having, she struggles with anxiety. Noah understands Sally’s neuroses and assures her that her concerns about self-perception and social perception is true for everyone.
Noah and Sally go out for a hike in the canyon and are ambushed by a paparazzo in the parking lot. Sally questions how quickly Noah moved away from her, and Noah is offended that Sally thinks it’s because he doesn’t want to be photographed with her. Noah confronts Sally by being open with his feelings. He tells her that he had been instantly attracted to her confidence at TNO and had spent the last two years since then wondering about her. He tells her that he imagines marrying her and building a life with her. Despite saying, “I’ve waited my whole life to feel connected to someone in the ways I feel connected to you” (255), he also points out that Sally is deeply burdened by her insecurities. Noah tells Sally that he loves her and doesn’t care that she’s not the most gorgeous woman in a picture. Sally is confused because while she’s moved by his admission of love, she wanted to see herself as the gorgeous star of a romantic comedy. Noah declares that Sally stews in her loneliness as a way of avoiding getting hurt. Sally tells him that she loves him too. She says, “But I’m also really grateful because I always wanted to feel disbelief at my own luck. At my romantic luck, I mean, not my luck related to Nigel giving me a career break” (258). Noah tells Sally that when he’s with her, he becomes a wittier, smarter, deeper version of himself. Noah hasn’t been able to truly live and appreciate his private life because so much of his world is performative and for public consumption, but with Sally he can enjoy being himself, not a performer.
Danny texts Sally with the first published paparazzi photo of Sally and Noah. He’s spending the pandemic with his girlfriend at Nigel’s house in the Hamptons. Danny tells Sally he’s happy she’s enjoying herself. The headline makes a big deal out of Noah shaving his head. Sally criticizes her body in the photograph as being too frumpy. Noah advises Sally not to pay attention to anything online, but Sally can’t help looking at the comments. She sees many commenters remark on her average looks. Before long, the “mystery brunette” Noah is on a date with is confirmed to be Sally, writer for TNO. Noah’s and Sally’s publicists and managers agree on a statement to release about their relationship if they’re photographed again.
Noah sets up an office in his house for Sally to work. He brings up quitting TNO and moving in with him again. Sally chafes at the idea of quitting her job for a man, and she isn’t ready to risk everything for Noah. Sally wants to go to a hotel for a couple of days to clear her head and get some perspective. After some thinking, chatting with Viv and Henrietta, and making a pro/con list, Sally decides she doesn’t want to return to TNO. She calls Danny to ask him advice about her relationship with Noah. Danny points out that most people are, like Sally, bad at dating, but they’re still worthy of finding love.
Sally’s aunt Donna calls to tell her that she thinks Jerry has COVID and isn’t doing well. Noah arranges a private flight for Sally to get back to Kansas City as quickly as possible. Noah goes with Sally, and on the plane she cuddles into him, grateful for his presence. Noah has also arranged for a doctor to meet them at Jerry’s house to evaluate Jerry’s condition.
At Jerry’s house, they find Jerry in bed, very ill. Noah helps Sally take care of Jerry and even spoon-feeds Jerry pudding. Noah goes out to Target to buy a pulse oximeter. The concierge doctor arrives late and gives Jerry a COVID test. He explains the precautions Noah and Sally should take but doesn’t advise getting Jerry to the hospital yet. Sally’s neighbor Charlotte had been taking care of Jerry’s beagle, Sugar. When Charlotte brings Sugar back to be with Sally, she asks Sally if Sally is dating Noah Brewster, Charlotte’s favorite singer.
Noah and Sally take care of Jerry, and Noah even buys Jerry a bedside commode. Noah starts writing music again. They discuss making their relationship official. Noah says he wants to be in a relationship with her as long as she doesn’t flee to a hotel whenever things get a little complicated. They both acknowledge that, as cheesy as it sounds to them, they’re in love, and love is a lot less cheesy when it’s happening to you.
Jerry starts to get better incrementally. Viv goes into labor, and Henrietta sends a picture of her own newborn baby, Olivia. Hours later, Viv sends a picture of her own newborn, Caleb. Sally invites Charlotte over to meet Noah. Charlotte cries meeting Noah and takes a picture to send to her sister.
Sally’s agent has already gotten Sally out of her contract with TNO, so Sally sends an email to Nigel to thank him for the opportunity he gave her years ago.
Sally and Noah stay in Kansas City for over two weeks. Jerry recovers, though it’s clear that COVID took a toll on him. The night before they leave, Noah plays a song for everyone that he’s written about Sally.
In summer of 2021, Noah goes back on tour and Sally meets his parents. Sally has written a screenplay that is being produced and filmed, starring Viv and Henrietta. The movie is about two ex-wives of Silicon Valley billionaires. The two women team up to get what’s due to them, since they both supported their ex-husbands’ companies without receiving any credit. Jerry and Sugar move in with Noah and Sally in Los Angeles. Noah and Sally get married.
In Chapter 3, Sittenfeld uses the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic to heighten the stakes of Noah and Sally’s reunion and emphasize the depth of their connection after only a few weeks of emails. During the summer of 2020, most Americans were not traveling across the country because of lockdowns and anxieties about the deadly COVID-19 virus. That Noah and Sally agree to meet up in person despite this external conflict emphasizes how much they want to see each other. What’s more, they agree to meet up after only a couple of weeks of speaking through email and FaceTime. Though they’re not necessarily strangers, the decision to meet in person despite their distance, the ongoing pandemic, and Sally’s uncertainty about the nature of their relationship reveals how connected they feel to each other.
When Sally arrives in Los Angeles, she’s the one who pursues sex with Noah. She listens to her instincts and lets go of her issues with her body, a major step for her that touches on the theme of Female Desire and Its Relationship to Insecurity. As Sally vulnerability’s and sense of connection to Noah deepens, her desire for him is heightened and her insecurities become less acute. Their emotional connection expands to a physical one as Sally embraces her desire for Noah. Their sexual chemistry is an important moment of development for their relationship—the sex Sally has with Noah is notably better than the sex she’s had in recent years with her flings, which further emphasizes Noah’s significance to Sally.
Noah’s home is a new environment for Sally. Getting accustomed to Noah and his home is an unexpected transition. Their relationship has progressed so quickly that Sally necessarily wants a space for herself. She has become accustomed to a solo life in which she can go the bathroom in privacy and spend her time doing whatever she wants. It is difficult to transition from a single life to a life of partnership. Despite their physical connection, Sally is hesitant to fall asleep with Noah, a reappearance of her self-protective fear of intimacy and pattern of avoiding deeper feelings.
Sittenfeld’s characterization of Noah in this transition redefines the traditional love interest of a romantic comedy. Noah is not put off by Sally’s nightly return to the guest room after sex. He respects her space and her boundaries, emphasizing the fact that Sittenfeld’s novel is a feminist romantic comedy. In it, she has carte blanche to create the kind of romantic lead that a feminist wants to be with—a person who listens without judgment, who doesn’t force his own agenda, and who acknowledges and respects boundaries.
In romantic comedies, love doesn’t come easily—the couple is challenged by life’s internal and external conflicts. Sally’s insecurity is one of the primary challenges she overcomes en route to her happy ending with Noah. Sittenfeld uses the heightened context of Noah’s celebrity to unpack the nature of Female Desire and Its Relationship to Insecurity. Despite her deepening connection with Noah, Sally can’t help but get inside her head and wonder why someone like Noah, who she believes could date any supermodel he wants, would choose her. She constantly compares herself to Noah’s other well-known ex-girlfriends, as well as to Noah himself. When a paparazzo follows them on a hike to take pictures, Noah’s standoffish behavior makes Sally believe that he doesn’t want to be photographed with her because she’s not as beautiful or high-status as his former girlfriends. Sally’s shame about herself, heightened by the scrutiny of the tabloid media, makes it easier to believe Noah is ashamed of her than that he’s simply unsettled by an intrusive encounter with a photographer. Sally internalizes her insecurities as truth, whereas Noah, who has both abundant resources and lengthy experience in the cultural spotlight, has learned to make peace with his insecurities, recognizing them as inevitable and developing strategies to deal with them.
Jerry’s illness poses an external challenge for Noah and Sally to overcome, bonding them further. Coming together to help take care of Jerry allows Noah to shed the sheen of his celebrity life, proving that he can fit into Sally’s world. Although Jerry is basically a stranger to him, Noah takes care of him like family, proving Noah’s commitment to Sally and his ability to be a good partner. Removing Noah and Sally from the heightened context of Noah’s world and placing them into the context of Sally’s world helps Sally get perspective on her insecurities. Though she accepts that she’ll always have them, she realizes that she can live with them if it means having a life with Noah.
Sittenfeld once again utilizes classic tropes of the romantic comedy genre to deliver the ultimate happy ending for Sally and Noah. First, the grand gesture, in which one of the partners (traditionally the man) performs an enormous act of romance or generosity to prove that he’ll always be there for the woman. Noah makes his grand gesture by flying himself and Sally to Kansas City and caring for Jerry throughout his illness. Though they joke about it, Noah buying Jerry a bedside commode and helping Jerry use the toilet is indeed proof of Noah’s love for Sally. What’s more, when things are good between Sally and Noah, their behavior is romantic to the point of cheesiness, but in a romantic comedy, what could be seen as cheesy reads as poetic and symbolic. Noah’s grand gesture combined with Sally’s journey to self-acceptance brings them to the ultimate trope of the romantic comedy: the happy ending. Not only do Noah and Sally get married, but Sally finds success as a screenwriter. Her screenplay is being produced into a major motion picture starring Viv and Henrietta. The screenplay is a feminist-themed story starring women written by a woman. Thus, Sally achieves her dream of carving a new space for women in the comedy world. The story ends with Sally Having It All—the man and the career.
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By Curtis Sittenfeld