Review: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

A charming and laugh-out-loud novel by Lauren Graham, beloved star of Parenthood and Gilmore Girls, about an aspiring actress trying to make it in mid-nineties New York City.

Franny Banks is a struggling actress in New York City, with just six months left of the three-year deadline she gave herself to succeed. But so far, all she has to show for her efforts is a single line in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a degrading waitressing job. She lives in Brooklyn with two roommates - Jane, her best friend from college, and Dan, a sci-fi writer, who is very definitely not boyfriend material - and is struggling with her feelings for a suspiciously charming guy in her acting class, all while trying to find a hair-product cocktail that actually works.

Meanwhile, she dreams of doing "important" work, but only ever seems to get auditions for dishwashing liquid and peanut butter commercials. It's hard to tell if she'll run out of time or money first, but either way, failure would mean facing the fact that she has absolutely no skills to make it in the real world. Her father wants her to come home and teach, her agent won't call her back, and her classmate Penelope, who seems supportive, might just turn out to be her toughest competition yet.

Someday, Someday, Maybe is a funny and charming debut about finding yourself, finding love, and, most difficult of all, finding an acting job.

Shona's review 4 of 5 stars

I picked up the audio version of this book, I've been eyeing the book for a while and opted for the audio version because it was recorded by Lauren Graham herself. Im a bit of a fan, I loved her in Gilmore Girls and Parenthood. However i quickly realised that listening to Graham reading was a mistake... I couldn't help but picture Lorelai instead of Franny in the scenes. And it took me a while to shake off the ghost of Lorelai and let Franny tell her tale.

To begin with it felt a little Bridget Jones' Diary-esque, in the way that she mentions her Filofax pages as a way to mark the passing of time, but that was about where the comparisons ended. 

I liked Franny almost immediately, but again that may be because to begin with my brain was seeing another character in her place. At times she felt so very naive and oblivious to the "definitely not boyfriend material" even when he makes it pretty obvious he'd like to be considered for that role... and the charming guy from acting class was so far up his own behind its a wonder he actually manages to see anyone else.