In April Lindner’s Jane, the late-night sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live (SNL), is referenced by Nico Rathburn within Chapter 7, when he personally details his backstory to Jane Moore, in relation to Celine’s (Maddy’s mother) love affair in France. He confides to Jane that, “She’d been seeing her boyfriend, Jean Paul LeFevre—Can you believe that name? It’s like a parody of a Latin lover in a Saturday Night Live skit, for God’s sake” (Lindner 92). Though only mentioned in passing, this allusion operates both culturally and geographically within the context of the novel. Geographically, Saturday Night Live is produced at Studio8H, NBC Studios, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, within New York City—approximately a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Thornfield Park in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Culturally, the SNL allusion operates on two levels: the first being Nico Rathburn’s preoccupation with his own reputation—having described Celine’s affair through a National Enquirer headline: “’Glittering Chanteuse Hooks Up with Handsome Gallic Leading Man’” (92)—along with the fact that the SNL creative process is inherent upon pop culture gossip and headlines that occur on a daily basis; though not referenced, the likelihood of Nico Rathburn’s persona being parodied on the show is highly probable due to his scandalous career. Moreover, as a musician whose career has spanned decades, one can also infer the likelihood that, at some point, Nico Rathburn has performed on the sketch comedy show, if not a handful of times, since SNL includes a musical performance per episode. Despite being referenced in passing, Saturday Night Live is very much a part of Nico Rathburn’s world.

Bibliography:

Lindner, April. Jane. Kindle ed., Poppy, 2010.

RS