Those who read Rodham, Sittenfeld’s previous novel, will remember that scene with Bill Clinton playing the saxophone and know what I’m talking about. You’re smiling now, aren’t you? Rest assured, Sittenfeld demands no such imagining of American politicians playing music in the nude in this, her seventh novel. Indeed, there are no politicians in Romantic Comedy at all. Our heroine is Sally Milz, a 36-year-old divorced comedy writer and self-described “mild-mannered woman of average intelligence and attractiveness”. But don’t let her fool you, Sally’s tenacity for self-deprecation is equal to her brilliance and wit.