The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich

The Last Girlfriend on Earth

by Simon Rich

Love is really, really difficult. And it's even harder if you're the last woman on earth.

The sketches in Simon Rich's new book are bizarre, funny, and even familiar. Exploring love's many complications and mortifications - losing it, finding it, breaking it, and making it - Rich turns the ordinary into the absurd.

From the invisible man's compulsion to stalk his ex, Sherlock Holmes' only blind spot and how Darwin really formed his theory of evolution, The Last Girlfriend on Earth takes readers for an exhilarating, hilarious ride on the rollercoaster of love.

Praise for What In God's Name:

'Like Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Rich drags heaven down to Earth ... owes much to The Simpsons and to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens' New York Times

'Hilarious and touching ... obviously Rich is crazy good at hysterical sharp dialogue ... What In God's Name reads like a screenplay for a film that might sit comfortably beside Woody Allen's early absurd works in a Netflix queue ... a clever, endearing novel' Entertainment Weekly

'Divinely funny' Vanity Fair

Reviewed by Michael @ Knowledge Lost on

3 of 5 stars

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The Last Girlfriend on Earth is a collection of skits (no quite short stories) about love and matters of the heart. Simon Rich was one of the youngest writers to work on Saturday Night Live, which explains the short bizarre stories. For a man only just 30, Rich has had an impressive career already, receiving a two-book contract with Random House prior to graduating from Harvard University. The Last Girlfriend on Earth is his fifth book, but it is the first one I’ve had the opportunity to read.

These skits/stories are a lot of fun, and I was entertained from start to finish. Highlights include, ‘Unprotected’ the story told entirely from the perspective of a condom, ‘Magical Mr. Goat’ tells the story of a girl’s imaginary friend stuck in the ‘friend-zone’, and there is even one about a dog’s missed connections. There are some stories that are just so bizarre that you wonder how he thought them up, like dating Mother Teresa (she is practically a saint of a woman) or finding out that your ex is dating Hitler. There was even one where a guy wins the MacArthur Fellowship ‘Genius award for having a one night stand.

Simon Rich clearly likes to play with stereotypes and inject some absurdity into his stories, yet they all seem to have something familiar about them. The ideas portrays in this book are that of love and even heartbreak; while expressed in a humorous way, I really enjoyed how there was an element to truth behind them. For example, what happens when the invisible man gets dumped? Naturally he would use his abilities to spy on his ex-girlfriends’ date. How about when Cupid becomes a teenager and rebels? What kind of game of Jeopardy! would it be if Alex Trebek’s ex-wife was a contestant. All the scenarios are unusual but relatable.

I always find it hard to write a review about a collection of short stories. With The Last Girlfriend on Earth, you’ll be definitely be entertained, think of it as an episode of Saturday Night Live on the topic of love. The humour of Simon Rich was razor shape and just twisted, but that is the kind of thing I enjoy. I’m not sure what his other books are like, but I’m curious to find out.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/02/14/the-last-girlfriend-on-earth-and-other-love-stories-by-simon-rich/

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 25 January, 2014: Finished reading
  • 25 January, 2014: Reviewed