I spent most of Alina Simone's debut novel Note to Self certain I had figured it out.
But how could it be new media-based chick-lit if I liked it? Part of the credit goes to a parade of fresh lines as clever this one, following the end of a relationship that was never made formal: "It would have been like challenging a cloud of mist to a duel. What was there to break?"
Another plus is that this is not a book about landing a man and living happily ever after, even if it seems a bit like it. Despite being 37, unemployed, single and overweight, the protagonist Anna only briefly devolves into a sad, Brooklyn-based Bridget Jones. Instead, in the course of trying to rebound after a layoff and challenge a beastly addiction to the internet, Anna hooks up with an enigmatic, avant-garde filmmaker named Taj and his fame-obsessed crew of insufferables. And that is how she finally figures out where she needs to go and how to get there - even if "there" is not half as much fun as the journey and has nothing to do with a keyboard.
amcqueen@thenational.ae
