Dinner for Two [Paperback]

Mike Gayle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002

Thirty-two-year-old music journalist Dave Harding has got a nice house, a cushy job and in Izzy, his partner, the ideal companion for an intimate dinner for two. But when friends of Dave announce they're having a baby the biological clock he never knew existed starts ticking. Loudly. When the magazine Dave works for folds he is forced to take the worst job in journalism - Agony Uncle for Teen Scene. Suddenly cooler-than-cool Dave is knee deep in the adolescent outpourings of his teenage readership. One letter out of thousands however turns his life upside down. Thirteen-year-old Nicola O'Connell doesn't want advice about boys - she wants to know about Dave because she's convinced that Dave Harding is her dad. And she's got the facts to prove it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With chick lit flourishing, the hopeful but floundering subgenre of lad lit has emerged, a prime example being Gayle's novel about a 32-year-old music journalist whose marriage is threatened by the appearance of a daughter he never knew he had. After losing his job at a music magazine, Dave is persuaded to take a stab at writing an advice column in the trendy Teen Scene and is surprised to find that not only is he being solicited by brokenhearted girls and anxious female friends for relationship advice, he's sought out by Nicola, a beautiful 13-year-old girl who claims to be his daughter. Keeping secret his deepest desire, to father a child, because his wife Izzy, editor at a glamorous women's magazine, has admitted she is not quite ready for motherhood, Dave loves the idea that he could be Nicola's father and surreptitiously commences a relationship that opens his heart to the love of this stranger-daughter. But when Izzy finally learns about Nicola, Dave realizes that he may have to choose between the love of his life and the daughter of his dreams. Gayle's sensitive and poignant male-perspective novel may not be the guy's equivalent of Kinsella or Fielding's hilarious escapades, but it will tug at the heartstrings and give female readers a peek into the male psyche.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Thirty-two-year-old Dave Harding has an enviable life--career as a music journalist; a beautiful wife, Izzy; and a nice flat in London. But he feels the pain of Izzy's miscarriage so deeply that he realizes how much he wants to be a father. As luck would have it, it turns out he already is, to a 13-year-old girl, Nicola, with whose mother he had a one-night stand just before college. After he learns of Nicola's existence, they begin seeing each other on the sly, telling neither Izzy nor Nicola's mother. This ploy buys them time to get to know one another before dealing with the inevitable complications. But deal they must, eventually. Gayle, to his credit, does not tidy things up too neatly, letting Izzy and Dave's relationship ride the fence. But, all in all, this is meant to be a feel-good book in the Nick Hornby vein, complete with numerous references to rock music. One problem: Hugh Grant may be too old to play the title role. Beth Leistensnider
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Flame (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340767960
• ISBN-13: 978-0340951590
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,085,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars lighthearted relationship drama, July 30, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dinner for Two (Paperback)

In London, thirty-one years old Dave Harding is a music journalist for Louder magazine, a publication that boasts that its audience is "people who live for music" while his beloved wife Izzy works at Femme Magazine. He likes his work there so is a bit taken back when the magazine folds.

Through a friend Jenny, Izzy gets Dave a job as an agony aunt at Teen Scene. Dave provides relationship and other advice to mostly adolescent girls. Leery when he first started because he took himself seriously as a music critic, Dave soon realizes he is enjoying the advice column. However, as Izzy recovers from a miscarriage, Dave believes his biological clock is running down and needs a baby to feel fulfilled. Everything changes when thirteen-year-old Nicola sends him a letter at teen Scene insisting that he is not her agony uncle, but her biological father. He quickly believes she is right, but agonizes how to tell Izzy still healing from her miscarriage as he is terrified by how the woman who he loves with all his heart will react.

This lighthearted relationship drama stars a sensitive male who loves his wife so much that everyone knows it. Dave's need not to hurt the already battered Izzy actually leads to mistrust and doubt as his good intentions towards his spouse and his newly discovered teenage child backfires until the ladies come to the rescue. Mike Gayle furbishes a fine tale starring characters readers will cherish especially fumbling nurturing and loving Dave.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great read, May 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Dinner for Two (Paperback)

Light, sweet, a dash of humour and a great read on a man's view of the world. A must!

4.0 out of 5 stars Cute not Corny and Meaningful not Preachy!, May 11, 2010

By 

Yvonne - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dinner for Two (Paperback)

Dave Harding is a British magazine music journalist. He is married to Izzy and they are beginning to think about kids when Izzy gets pregnant - then miscarries. She closes down and then Dave loses his job and he starts work as an "angry uncle" for a teen magazine. Nicola sees his picture and realizes he is her father and contacts him. Thus begins the dilemma of whether and how to tell Izzy about Nicola and what it all means for the rest of each of their lives. And, don't forget, he must keep dishing out advice to the teen girls along the way.

It's nice to see a book like this written by a male author and from a male's perspective in the actual text. Although seemingly hard to believe Nicola could find Dave this way, the topic is handled really well - without being mushy or preachy. The sub-plots about friends are under-developed, making you wonder why they are in there other than to fill spacebut, I guess the couple has to do something outside of being together.