Billy Mernit's 'Imagine Me and You' lacks likable protagonist
Source: The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com (Original Article)
Romantic Comedy. Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets
Girl . . . we know the drill, which is both the joy and the
tedium of any genre.
We turn to it precisely because we like knowing what to
expect, and hope for that unexpected twist, a new,
intriguing flavor that delights. Billy Mernit’s
romantic comedy, “Imagine Me and You,” attempts to
pry readers from the familiar - with some interesting and
risky moves.
The novel’s protagonist, Jordan Moore, is married to
Isabella, who has returned to her native Italy “to
think.” Jordan is desperately trying to get his
published novel made into a feature film. He is lonely and
anxious, about both wife and career, and he needs a plan.
Predictably, his plan is a bad one: He pretends he is seeing
another woman to make Isabella jealous. His fantasy woman,
Naomi, unexpectedly becomes his muse as he revises his novel
for a demanding movie producer. And like all good romantic
comedies, misunderstandings proliferate, madcap physical
comedy ensues, and the protagonist’s choices simply
make things worse.
Mernit, a story analyst for Universal Studios, is
well-versed in this genre. Briskly, he gives us The Setup,
The Cute Meet, The Complication, The Hook, The Swivel, The
Dark Moment and The Resolution.
Both Mernit and his character teach script writing and
write a novel, and as Jordan himself deals with his marriage
as though his own life is a script that needs revising, the
reader enjoys the layered tension. The book offers its
readers a bit of postmodern self-awareness, an insider-joke
as we move in and out of fiction about fiction.
Moreover, Mernit crafts some gems here: the eloquent
homeless guy who seems, inexplicably, to be a Los Angeles
movie-business insider; Jordan, in a bookstore, turning
“away from Ethics,” to get his bearings, and
sensing an elusive, seductive woman’s perfume more
strongly in “Drama.”
But despite the clever structure Aussie Credit Card and wordplay, Jordan is
ultimately unlikable …continue reading