The Material

A disquisition into the nature of comedy and creativity. Like the best comedians ... Bordas is alert to the deeper joke -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Sunday Times *
It's funny, intelligent and has much to say about how we live now * Financial Times *
Amusing... impressive * New York Times *
Marvellously engaging and entertaining ... full of terrific moments and cutting dialogue * Independent *
Fully imagined ... often effortless * Observer *
Surprising and powerful ... The Material is often acutely insightful and sometimes very, very funny. Recommended * Irish Times *
An invigorating blend of earnest soul-searching and hilarious set-pieces ... The Material is literary fiction at its most ambitious and accessible. Encore! * Buzz Magazine *
Skilful, engrossing ... the characters are fully realized, immediately present to the reader, and Bordas's observations are sharp * Times Literary Supplement *
Funny, intelligent and has much to say about how we live now -- George Cochrane * Financial Times *
There's definitely a quirky wryness here ... When we can't explain why something was funny, we say: You had to be there. This is the fictional embodiment of that kind of mic drop. * Spectator *
Smart, compelling and witty * i Paper *
The comedian as the aptest illustration of contemporary morality...What begins as a clever conceit becomes an interrogation of sadness itself. -- Rachel Cusk, author of Outline
Utterly charming . . . moving, witty, funny, and especially wonderful for the mature kind-heartedness of its view of humanity. Bordas is an invaluable new voice -- George Saunders
This novel is so smart. The science of comedy, it turns out, is no laughing matter, but it is nothing but funny. Camille Bordas has exposed the "material" of stand-up by making stand-up her material. Writing comedy is difficult enough, but writing comedy bits that fail and comedy bits that succeed requires some brilliance. That brilliance is on display here -- Percival Everett
Funny, humane and slyly philosophical -- Zadie Smith
A novel about an MFA program for stand-up comics better be damned funny, and The Material is definitely that. It's also profound, deeply engrossing, dark and generous, a great novel about humans making art right now -- Sam Lipsyte
Bordas will enchant her readers. . . . She is J.D. Salinger as a French woman-what more could you want?" -- Catherine Lacey
Everyone's a comedian in The Material, and that's no joke. Camille Bordas's novel is wryly funny and painfully awkward, populated by an irresistible cast of overthinkers and second guessers. It's a deep and illuminating pleasure, full of insights about stand-up comedy, group dynamics, and the inner lives of artists -- Tom Perrotta
Like the most brilliant comedy, The Material is not only very funny, but also incisive and insightful. Reading it, I understood more acutely the thin line between the plausible and the absurd. Come for the laughs, stay for the observations so deadpan and accurate that you may be blinded by your own reflection -- Ling Ma, author of Severance
Brilliant * Literary Review *
Thoughtful ... Bordas is so funny herself, her observations about the narcissism and insularity of creative types are very good and her deadpan delivery means they tend to land. She proceeds with a spry, associative logic * London Review of Books *