Really Good, Actually: A Novel

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1-Interlude 5

Chapter 6-Interlude 11

Chapter 11-Interlude 14

Chapter 14-Interlude 18

Chapter 18-Interlude 22

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Background

Authorial Context: Monica Heisey

Monica Heisey is a Canadian author, screenwriter, and comedian who is widely celebrated for her incisive wit and perceptive commentary. Heisey has made her mark on television with notable screenwriting credits such as The Baroness von Sketch Show, which garnered her four Canadian Screen Awards, and her contributions to Schitt's Creek and Workin' Moms. Her literary debut, an essay collection titled I Can't Believe It's Not Better: A Woman's Guide to Coping with Life, was published in 2015 and was derived from her popular advice blog, She Does the City.

Born in 1989 in Toronto, Canada, Heisey pursued undergraduate studies at Queen's College in Kingston before completing her MA in early modern literature at King's College in London (Heisey, Monica. About Monica Heisey. Monica Heisey). After a brief return to Toronto and a subsequent divorce, Heisey returned to London, where she further honed her craft. While Heisey emphasizes that Really Good, Actually is not autobiographical, she does draw inspiration from her own experiences, vividly capturing the essence of cities like Toronto and Kingston, with which she is intimately familiar (Schepp, Callie. “Schitt's Creek Writer Monica Heisey on Her Debut Novel and How Heartbreak Can Be Hilarious.” Entertainment Weekly, 22 June 2022). Through her protagonist, Maggie, Heisey juxtaposes the bustling energy of Toronto with the quietude of Kingston, infusing the narrative with rich, authentic details.

Despite sharing certain surface similarities with Maggie, such as red, curly hair and struggles with body image, Heisey maintains that Maggie's story is distinct from her own, stating, “I also knew that I didn't want to write a memoir […] because I didn't think I could be funny about my real-life situation. So I invented Maggie and Jon and tore up their life plans instead” (Schepp). Inspired by her personal journey, Heisey embarked on writing Really Good, Actually amidst the backdrop of the 2020 pandemic, channeling her emotions into a narrative that explores themes of heartbreak and self-discovery (Schepp). While her own divorce undoubtedly informs her storytelling, Heisey's creative prowess shines through in her ability to craft engaging characters and narratives that resonate with broad audiences. While the novel serves as a reflection of her experiences, Heisey emphasizes that it was not intended as a therapeutic exercise, stating, “I had pretty much talked [about the divorce] to death in therapy. I drew on my own feelings, but almost everything in the book that happens is invented, so it wasn't like I was reliving my most painful memories" (Sanner, Ermine. “When Your Ex Gets the Cat: the Writer Who Divorced in Her 20s – and Turned It into a Runaway Bestseller.” The Guardian, 22 Feb. 2023). Through Really Good, Actually, Heisey demonstrates her talent for infusing personal insights with humor and authenticity, cementing her status as a formidable voice in contemporary literature.

Social Context: Divorce and the Five Stages of Grief

In 1969, Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced the world to the five stages of grief in her seminal work, On Death and Dying (Rogers, Kristen. “What the 5 Stages of Grief Are, and How to Get Through Them.” CNN, 15 May 2023.). Despite lacking empirical evidence, Kübler-Ross's model of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance has endured, permeating both critical and supportive discourse across various media (Rogers). In Really Good, Actually, Monica Heisey skillfully depicts Maggie's journey through these stages, highlighting grief's nuanced and individual nature. Throughout the narrative, Maggie grapples with denial, unable to fully comprehend the end of her relationship with Jon. Despite outward assertions of closure, she clings to a futile hope for reconciliation, epitomizing the human struggle to accept deep losses. By contrast, Maggie's friend Amy embodies the stage of anger, radiating fury at the circumstances of her own divorce and using anger as a shield against her underlying feelings of powerlessness.

While Maggie occasionally experiences flashes of anger, her predominant emotional landscape is one of self-directed frustration, marking the onset of the bargaining stage. Consumed by guilt and “if only” scenarios, Maggie bargains with imagined possibilities, yearning to rewrite the past. As the narrative unfolds, Maggie also grapples with pervasive depression that is characterized by intermittent periods of sadness and moments of fleeting joy tinged with sorrow, and this pattern mirrors the erratic nature of grief. Even when Maggie is making progress, she muses, “Lately, whenever I perceived something as beautiful or felt pleasure or experienced joy, I was hit with an instant, aching sadness” (360). This cycling through emotions is very typical of the grieving process.

Towards the conclusion, Heisey portrays various characters’ progress toward acceptance, acknowledging that while acceptance does not equate to embracing the loss, it does signify an acknowledgment of the new reality. Within this context, Amy's decision to relinquish the condo symbolizes her acceptance of her changed circumstances, while Maggie comes to terms with the likelihood of never reconnecting with Jon. Thus Heisey strives to create a realistic and emotion-laden portrayal of the grieving process by illustrating the complexity and cyclical nature of its associated experiences. Through the characters of Maggie and Amy, Heisey underscores the individuality of such experiences, emphasizing that each person navigates the stages in their own unique way. Ultimately, Really Good, Actually stands as a compelling exploration of the universal human experience of loss and the journey toward healing and acceptance.