Customer Reviews

My Legendary Girlfriend

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I find Mike Gayle's books (Wish you were here, Life of the party, His 'n Hers) engaging so of course I wanted to read My Legendary Girlfriend aswel. I was even offended to see the book in a Dutch bookstore (in Dutch) for a very low bargain price. As a wannabe writer I was hurt on Mr. Gayle's behalf. When I started reading I became worried how long it was going to take the main caracter Will Kelly, to get his act together. I could relate to his suffering because around the same age I had a similar heartache. So in that regard I got tight up in the story. But upon further reading I became annoyed. Time was moving soooo slow. When was he actually going to do something? At times I just lost interest in the book for some days and continued reading in other books. But I kept some interest in the story so I returned. Today I finished it. I have to say that I applaud Mr. Gayle's convincing way of discribing Will Kelly and his troubles. It has proved, based on the comments here, that it is very tricky to discribe four days in a book of 368 pages. Than it probably comes done to personal likes or dislikes. I think sixty pages less would have improved the book. Even better would have been a visit by an interesting caracter. That most likely would have put or kept some pace in the overall story. I see the comparison with Bridget Jones Diary. I myself was thinking about "Adrian Mole's Secret Diary" and "Growing pains of Adrian Mole."

A friend of mine in the UK sent me "My Legendary Girlfriend" as I'd expressed an interest in finding, for lack of a better term, some "Dude Lit" ... and this certainly fit the bill. Although it was something of a rough start (or perhaps I'm just an impatient reader), the book finally picked up about 2/3 of the way through, and was actually quite engaging by the end. If it had been that engaging all the way through it would have been an excellent book. As it was, I can only give it a rating of a "pretty good" book in clear conscience, but with the caveat that it was the writer's first novel.

The impression I got was that Gayle had a nice, solid ending, but didn't really have a beginning or middle to go with it, if you see what I mean. As for plot, there's almost zero -- a guy who's still heartbroken about being dumped spends the anniversary weekend of it three years later making a lot of phone calls, engaging in a lot of self-pity, acting like a massive slob around the house, and generally being pathetic, until he very suddenly grows a spine and goes through a series of rapid-fire relationship changes that conveniently turn into a happy ending for most of the cast. (Hope that doesn't spoil it for you!)

Basically, the first 2/3 of the book read like Gayle is stalling. There are a lot of anecdotes about the narrator's daily activities, his childhood, reminiscences about the girl who dumped him, a variety of other girls from his past, and his one male friend. There's a lot of bitching about his crummy apartment. And so on. There is foreshadowing and plot-building mixed in to all this, but a lot of it seems to just be put in to round it out from 20,000 words to 60,000 words so that you'll have an investment in the characters by the time you reach the end of the book.

Unfortunately, the time to get your reader invested in the book is "as close to the beginning as you can arrange it," not "just before the book ends," because only the most dedicated (or entertainment-starved) reader is likely to stick it out that long.

But, as I say, it was the author's first novel. The fact that it did get good by the end gives me hope that maybe his other books improve as he gets more experience. He's got something like five other books, and I expect I'll check them out when I get the chance to see if he manages in future to jump right to the good part and stay there for the course of the book.

I fell head over heels in love with Mike Gayle's sophomore release MR. COMMITMENT, so when I stumbled across MY LEGENDARY GIRLFRIEND - which happens to be his first book, I had to read it! I was not disappointed!

As usual Gayle takes his time when telling a story. There are many parts of the book that will have you screaming "hurry up!", but his well thought out characters and plot is what makes this book a hit!

Will is the ill at ease, sarcastic protagonist in this delightful novel. It's been three years and he still hasn't gotten over the day his ex-girlfriend Aggi dumped him - on his 23rd birthday -- without rhyme or reason.

There hasn't been a woman since who has come and knocked ol' Aggi down from that tremendously high pedestal Will has put her on. He obsesses over her day and night, and beats himself up trying to figure out what he could've done differently. He just cannot get her out of his system. That is until he gets a phone call from the girl who lived in his flat prior to him moving in. Could this stranger be the one who helps Will come to grips on the true meaning of love?

In just one weekend, he learns what usually takes a lifetime for some. Maybe there is someone out there that can measure up to his "legendary girlfriend".

I love all of the British "chick lit," and I was prepared to love this book too, but I just didn't. I found Will's situtation to be pretty pathetic--his girlfriend dumped him three years ago, and he still isn't over it yet. He lives in a hovel decorated only with a photo of said ex-girlfriend. He seems to hate his job. And he does exceptionally foolish things, like deciding that he's meant to spend his life with Kate, a girl he has only spoken to on the phone.
I found this story tedious, and basically only finished it because it wasn't THAT bad, and because I'd already devoted some time to it...

I came across a short story from the 2011 Quick Reads series by Gayle called Men at Work. It was brilliant and if anything would have been even better if it was a full length novel. However upon deciding to check out Gayle's novels by starting with his first one, I have to say the opposite is true with Legendary Girlfriend, it wasn't brilliant and definitely would have been better if a lot of pointless boring text was edited away and it had in fact been a short story.

Don't get me wrong, there's occasional flashes of brilliance in here, such as when the postman doesn't leave his birthday present, but it's just so few and far between and is surrounded by too much pointless and boring waffling on by the main character Will Kelly. If I hadn't liked Men at Work so much, I wouldn't have stuck with this past the first few chapters, let alone all the way to the end. My Legendary Girlfriend also suffers from the fact that Will isn't that likeable a character, due to his severe slobiness, and just pure patheticness in not moving on for three years after being dumped by his then girlfriend Aggi. All this guy does is sit around and mope about her and the fact that he is a now a teacher, a job he doesn't like. Seriously you can understand why Aggi didn't want to be in a relationship with this loser. The novel is also fairly predictable, you'll work out who Will's legendary girlfriend should be early on.

The basic plot of this, is pretty much outlined in the above paragraph other than one day Will gets a phone call from the former tenant since a cheque was posted there by mistake and she really needs the money. Maybe she can bring Will out of his pathetic life? I'd get this from your library first before wasting any money on it. I know Gayle can write so I'll try a few more of his novels. However if your looking for a good similar type British narrative novel that's funny from the first page to the end, check out Up a Tree in the Park at Night with a Hedgehog by Paul Robert Smith.

Like some other reviewers, I wanted to like this book. I kept trying. I kept reading, thinking it would get there...but it really didn't. I am a fan of Mr. Gayle's work, but this is not his best. The book moves very slow (no pun intended for those of you who will point out that the entire book takes place over three days), and the spark is just not there. The only character which has any sort of development is Will, and I just couldn't bring myself to care that much about him. Its saving grace is the fact that the ending of the book is at least a bit surprising.

I also read that "if you like Nick Hornby, you'll love Gayle!" but I found that's not always the case. Hornby's work, in my opinion, is so much more thorough and has more heart.

If you need proof of this book's mediocrity, look at the huge number of used copies available through Amazon. If you haven't read Gayle's "Mr. Commitment" I'd start there; much more rewarding.

I'm sorry but I did not like this book one bit. Although I loved Mr. Commitment, also written by Mike Gayle, this book was nothing like Mr. Commitment. The book is a very slow read.

My Legendary Girlfriend by Mike Gayle is full of self-loathing, indecisiveness, obsession and irrationality.

This is why it's a good book.

Will is immensely unfulfilled. He works a last resort job as a teacher. He lives in a pit. He cannot get over his ex-girlfriend. Mike Gayle has brilliantly painted a picture of a person who, while surrounded by people filled with light, is stuck in his own head. It takes a stranger, Kate, to bring him out and help him see the happiness available to him.

Be aware. If you are looking for a novel that is full of action and a greatly dynamic main character, you will not find that here. Most of the action takes place in Will's home and head.

But if you are a person who has ever experienced heartbreak or has ever felt like you were thrown into the world without a compass, you will sympathize and cheer for his success.

I chose this book based on its pretty cover. Here's a good piece of advice: Never judge a book by its cover...bad or good.

That's all this book had---a cute cover.

I was hopeful that this book, with its male protagonist, a first for me in chick lit, would be clever and new. Nope.

Disappointing waste of good reading time.

Okay, my first foray into the world of Lad Lit came only in November 2011 with a self-published book that had me literally crying with laughter. The book was so good that I immediately started looking at other male `Lad Lit' authors and Mike Gayle was one that I had heard of and was incredibly popular.

With that in mind I decided to try his debut novel My Legendary Girlfriend that he first published back in 1998. Very early on we are introduced to Will Kelly, the only real `character' so to speak in the book. We get the lowdown on his truly depressing life, his awful flat and his agony over his ex-girlfriend.

Very early on I found myself disliking Will, all he seemed to do was moan about literally everything, and I had no sympathy for him whatsoever. I figured that this must be the lead up to where the character develops and the reader ends up seeing the turnaround. No such luck for me on that front.

The most frustrating thing is that nothing much happens. I get the impression this was meant to be a mans take on the Bridget Jones style kind of diary; however this is the furthest from that example in my opinion. Seeing as I was over halfway through the book and not feeling anything towards the character, I gave the book a break for a day and hoped I would return with a better feeling.

Sadly, when I returned and ploughed through (that's what it felt like), I finished it with an overwhelming feeling of disappointment. The writing was good, and there were certainly moments that made me chuckle, but that alone was not enough for me to actually feel like I enjoyed the book.

Overall, I can honestly say that this book was unmemorable at best and boring at worst. The writing and moments of humour are enough for me to try another Mike Gayle, after all as this was his debut novel and he now has a solid fan base I would like to give a newer book a try and hope that maybe it was just this particular book that wasn't my cup of tea.