COMMENTARY: Rich and Pretty (2016)
The following are thoughts and reactions I had while reading Rich and Pretty (2016) by Rumaan Alam. They do not reflect my overall post-reading opinion of the work. For self-study purposes, there may also be extensive summaries of the plot in these notes. In short…
⚠️ MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD ⚠️
- Ch. 3/ pg. 37 - I’m sorry to confess I didn’t pick up the POV change in chapter three until six pages in, but once I did and reread it… I started tearing up. There’s something really beautiful happening here between two friends who have moved on but not quite and are still bundled up in insecurities, their judgment of each other, this is what makes fiction unique as a medium. Nothing else lets you get into the emotional interiors of characters like this. And there’s something so incredibly sad about how Sarah and Lauren see each other but would never tell each other because they’re simply not even aware of how they think about each other. Sarah came off as a rich spoiled insecure brat from Lauren’s POV, living a life of unemployed leisure. Lauren came off as a self-entitled, uncaring friend who never quite puts enough attention or energy into the friendship that Sarah obviously values, and Lauren doesn’t (she could throw it away for all she cared), and this small antagonism is what’s driving the story. All this unspoken dynamic that we as readers get access to through their POV.
- Omg. I just read the author’s bio on the back of the book. Rumaan Alam is a dude. wtf. I’m sorry for asking, but is he gay? Because if he’s straight, I am even more impressed.
- So I had to go to some wiki-knockoff site called factsbuddy to get the tea. Yes. Openly gay with two adopted sons.
- Ch. 6/pg. 64 - Lauren kinda sucks. She’s this self-absorbed misanthrope who just wants to be left alone. I know I know. That’s me, too. But she still sucks. As do I.
- Ch. 8/pg. 86 - Lauren and Sarah’s backstory in one chapter, wrapped in Lauren thinking about how Karen is her only work friend, and someone who’s perceptive unlike Lauren who is not.
- Pg. 94 - the reveal of what happened to Christoper, Sarah’s dead brother, is going to be crushing, isn’t it? Isn’t it, Rumaan???!
- Ch. 9/pg. 98 - Sarah as a people pleaser to the nth degree contrasts so well with Lauren as a self-absorbed person.
- Pg. 107 - you’re my life partner. 🥲
- Ch. 12/pg. 132 - Lauren giving up Gabe because she felt nothing about it the relationship is so real and also so sad. She wasn’t opposed to it but also wanted tempted by it. Nothing in her drove her to say yes or no and it just lapsed and nothing happens and Gabe moves out.
- At the end of the day, someone like Sarah is very much my relationship with KD. Inscrutable, super Midwestern nice KD. Popular, empathetic, enthusiastic, thinks about you, keeps tabs on you, takes notes on your preferences… but I would never feel close to her like I do with other friends. I need that slight cynicism, that slight bitterness at the world. It’s probably why AM and I worked so well together. The shared trauma of growing up poor.
- I mean, just the way Lauren never knows what to say when people say everyday niceties. It’s awkward to her. Whereas Sarah just glides through it.
- Of course, Sarah is always begging for reassurance she’s doing the right thing. It’s framed as checking in, or she downplays and even insults the situation, playing the victim, says she hates it, but really she just needs Lauren to approve her choices. To tell her she’s doing the right thing. I don’t know what’s better to constantly seek approval as a way through life, but actually doing stuff, or to never ask for feedback and then being awkward about it and just letting things slide.
- Ch. 14/pg. 160 - Sarah’s entire character is about taking care of other people and ensuring everybody is comfortable and in turn, she expects the same of her best friend. She’s not mad that Lauren slept with the waiter as a morally superior prudish thing even tho that’s what Lauren thinks, she’s mad that it create a situation that made her uncomfortable amongst her friends on this vacation, which is something Lauren will never fully understand.
- And that was the MID. We have a mirror moment not so much as one PROT seeing themselves but the relationship, the friendship, making a genuine reflection on who they are to each other, what they mean to each other.
- STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS pg. 119 is when the resort stuff started (so about 40%). 100ish is where Lauren tells Sarah about the promotion, they fight about Gabe/Greg, and Sarah brings up the island bachelorette party… basically doing all the planning work for Lauren who hasn’t done a single thing as maid of honor. (33%). The 20% mark is where Laura bumps into Jill Hansen, who is doing what she hasn’t - grown up and settled down. And where Sarah in the next chapter tries on the wedding dress, which is something she hates (being the center of attention versus taking care of everyone else). It’s a good way to end act one.
- Ch. 15/pg. 182 - Sarah’s pregnant
- Ch. 16/pg. 194 - Lauren truly admires Sarah. She mights be insecure but outwardly she can handle herself and solve problems. That’s something Lauren looks up to.
- Ch. 18/pg. 231 - oof. This sentence: “Sarah hates doing what is expected of her, even though that’s what she ends up doing most of the time.”
- Ch. 19/pg. 246 - heh. Sarah wins in the end. No attention allowed for the pregnancy.
- Ch. 19/pg. 251 - oh I see what you’re doing Rumaan. Bookending the novel with another party where Lauren goes to one of Sarah’s get-together and the two sneak off to reminisce about their lives and avoids the crowd who’s there out of ritual and not genuine connection. I see you.
- Ch. 19/pg. 265 - just the love and admiration Sarah has for Lauren. It’s heartbreaking how much she loves her and Lauren knows, but I don’t think Lauren will ever truly understand how much Sarah loves her. This is such an achingly beautiful friendship.
- Ch. 20/pg. 277 - are we jumping forward in time? Is that how we’re ending this book?
- Ch. 20/pg. 286 - oh so they’re not telling each other every major thing five years on. They’re keeping secrets from each other
- Ch. 20/pg. 290 - fuck. I’m crying. Crying in a strange bed in a Reykjavik Airbnb. Their lives just moved on. That’s it. There’s no sad miserable drama or traumatic event. It simply moved on. They each had their own personal traumas and tribulations and they just don’t share everything with each other anymore and that’s just life moving onwards and it’s passes by you and your closest friends just move on and you don’t talk anymore.