Nobody Asked for This: A Novel
General fiction, Serious and literary fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Summary
A razor-sharp dramedy following a twenty-something comic as she navigates family grief, dysfunctional friendship, and a date gone very wrong.Virginia is twenty-three and a stand-up comedian. In between working the rounds of Toronto&’s small comedy club circuit and auditioning for… paper towel commercials, she is tiptoeing around her depressed roommate and childhood friend, Haley, and having biweekly dinners with her bereaved stepdad, Dale, while trying to manage her own grief at the loss of her mother. She is also secretly working to get the green card that will be her ticket to LA and, she hopes, a glittering comedy career.But when Dale tells her that he wants to sell their family home, and when a date with a fellow comic turns into a shattering encounter, she is forced to confront the limits of comedy and friendship. Not every experience can be neatly packaged into a &“bit,&” and not every friendship is meant to last.By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Nobody Asked for This reaches into the messy depths of love, friendship, grief, and trauma, and, like all the best jokes, is utterly unpredictable.