On the HahaFiction shelf
Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About
by Mil Millington
Pel can usually muddle through his university library IT job and go home to Ursula and their two sons. His boss's disappearance spoils that arrangement. Promotion brings him stolen money, missing colleagues and mafia business, while the arguments at home continue on their familiar course.
From the publisher’s blurb
“Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About concerns a guy named Pel who lives with his German girlfriend, Ursula.”Read the full description at Villard publisher description
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What makes it funny?
Car keys, chores and the trouble of moving house give Pel and Ursula ample material for a fight. Kirkus points to the organized physiotherapist and her disorganized partner as the engine of these exchanges.
The comedy at work
Millington has said he wanted the couple to stay firmly together while the world around them became increasingly insane. Their bickering is an expression of intimacy, and the criminal workplace plot keeps raising the pressure outside the house.
Try this if…
The appeal lies in a long-established couple's verbal combat, with university farce and criminal complications thrown in. Readers who enjoy domestic comedy without needing a new courtship have a useful starting point.
Good to know
Kirkus found the thriller plot thin and the storytelling episodic despite enjoying its wit. Sexual humor and criminal conspiracies are part of the mix.
From book groups
Questions readers ask
- How much is autobiographical?
- Millington has said the scenes, incidents and dialogue are invented. He used familiar settings and made Ursula German partly to spare himself extra research.
More funny family comedy
Sources & further reading
- Publisher and author interview
Publisher
- Trade review
Review
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