Customer Reviews

Turning Thirty

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

 

 

Mike Gayle makes a point about how our society values perpetual youth, so that when people turn 30, they freak out. I went through it myself in July. Thankfully, the book is written with a lot of humor so that a potentially painful subject becomes entertaining.

Our protagonist, Matt Beckford, is a likable guy. A British expat, he's living with his girlfriend in New York. The problem is, his girlfriend doesn't feel the spark anymore, and neither does he, although they're great friends. After an almost unbelievably amicable parting, Matt goes home to England to live with his parents for four months between jobs. (He's getting transferred to the Australia office of his software development company in four months).

Once he's in England, Matt catches up with all his old mates from high school, who are all nearing 30 or already turned. He also encounters Ginny Pascoe, a sort-of girlfriend from high school. In the past, they constantly hooked up, but they never had a real relationship. Ginny is dating someone now, but she and Matt start spending a lot of time together. Matt also stays in touch with Elaine via email as he tries to figure out how he feels about turning 30 and his life in general.

Mike Gayle has not really caught on in the US, that I can see, and that strikes me as a shame. His books always have likable, funny, immediately relatable characters. They happen to be very funny as well.

My one complaint about this book was the ending. It wasn't predictable at all, but it wasn't entirely satisfying. However, he may write a sequel, because this is the book most of his fans have asked him to write a sequel to. I'm looking forward to it!

Mike Gayle is big in the UK, but for some reason he hasn't caught on to the same extent over here. I don't quite know why, because Gayle can write some blissfully (and sometimes wistfully) funny stuff. Plus his characters are endearing, sympathetic and human -- even if sometimes they act rude, egotistical or boorish. Turning Thirty is just as humourous and absorbing as Gayle's previous work, which means it's operating at a pretty high standard indeed.

This book was my first experience reading the work of Mike Gayle, and I am please to report that I plan to read more of his books in the future! I enjoyed this book for the most part, which surprised me because I was a bit hesitant to read it since I am still several years from 30 and typically don't read books written from the male point of view.

The book did make me think about goals I have set for myself and how life rarely turns out just as you plan it to in high school. I thought the main characters were well-developed and I was surprised by the ending...a nice treat! I cracked up everytime the author mentioned a previous classmate then put in () what he/she was predicted to be in high school and what he/she ended up being.

I would certainly recommend this book to any reader around the age of 30. I caught myself thinking of old friends and experiences from my hometown that I hadn't thought of for awhile while reading this one. It's a good book to read if you're starting to feel like life hasn't taken the turns you hoped it would by your 10-year reunion! :)

I do recommend this book!

I picked up this book because (being on the verge of the big three-oh myself) the title caught my attention. Rarely do you find a voice which is present, introspective, and relatable for both men and women. But this book accomplished that.

It was a great balance of introspection, taking stock, and hopefulness for the future. My favorite quote is about the difference betweeen what turning thirty means for a guy and what it means for a girl. But I won't ruin it for you.

I will tell you that I've already recommended the book to three friends, and that I also wholeheartedly recommend it to you!

Turning Thirty was just the right kind of book for exactly the kind of mood I was in. Perfectly pitched between comedy and pathos I loved every single word. This is the first Mike Gayle I've ever read and I would describe it as somewhere between a Steve Horsfall and a Nick Hornby novel, i.e. British, quirky and so well observed.

Being a little over two years away from the big three oh myself this book struck a chord with me. Many of Gayle's observations about how one feels as they approach thirty were not only hilarious but also right on the money.

Matt Beckford is turning thirty in about 89 days and his life is falling apart! He thought by the age of thirty he would have it all together, the fancy high paying job, the woman who was "the one" to spend his life with and the trendy house complete with the requisite "thirty-people's" wine rack. However, Matt finds himself three months away from his birthday moving out of his live in girlfriend's apartment and back to Birmingham to live with, dare I say it...his PARENTS! Now Matt has to figure out what turning thirty really means and he enlist the help of some of his oldest friends to figure it out.

This is the third novel by Gayle that I have had the pleasure of reading and he is definitely a very talented and witty author whose voice has never gotten lost in his stories. As popular as Gayle is in the UK it is surprising that he isn't better known it the US however now with the wide re-release of `TURNING THIRTY' he may just find himself at the top of the US's best sellers list soon.

As he closed in on the Big 3-0 computer expert Matt Beckford feels pretty good about his future after the past somewhat tumultuous decade. His symbols that he is making it are his wine rack with wine and his girlfriend Elaine. However, as the countdown to maturity continues, Matt suffers several setbacks starting with an amiable split with Elaine and ending with his forced exile from New York to return to his hometown of Birmingham, England to live under his parents' roof while he prepares for a move to Australia.

As the countdown continues, Matt meets friends from his schooldays, which make him ponder the two key teenage questions of life: "What am I going to do with my life?" and "Will I ever get a girlfriend?" He soon moves in with an occasional former lover Ginny Pascoe, who lets him use her spare room. To his shock he is falling in love with his hostess even while Elaine tries to reheat their transatlantic relationship.

Thought the latter half of this fine contemporary character study seems less insightful and amusing than Matt's earlier splashdown, fans will enjoy this hunk-lit tale of aging. Matt is a terrific lead character as he informs with asides to the audience that all his teen doubts have returned though he inches towards thirty, that his last year or two was a false facade and wonders when maturity will actually come and stay. Fans will appreciate TURNING THIRTY as Matt begins to realize that from the day you are perceived you grow old; he hopes in his case a little more gracefully.

Harriet Klausner

Cons: Have you ever looked through someone else's photo album and instead of the person just letting you see the photos, they describe every single detail of every single person on each sheet even if you could care less about them? That was the way most of this book was for me. The majority of the book was about Matt, who left his job and ex-live-in girlfriend in New York to find a new job in Australia but because that job was not ready yet, he moves back in with his parents in Birmingham, UK (I was confused about that at first because I thought he meant Alabama until I looked it up).
This is when things start not making sense to me. I found it odd that:
* someone would go from one continent to the next continent to the next continent all for a three-month wait instead of just finding another apartment in NY
* be jealous of their ex dating someone else when their whole break-up scene was like peeling a banana--easy and no emotion
* Matt didn't think it was extremely weird to move in with a past sex buddy when he was under the impression that she had a serious boyfriend--no matter how nonchalant she claims he was (until I found out later details)

All that aside, when Matt went home to live with his parents, he caught up with a couple of close friends--his continuous sex buddy, Gayle, and his oldest friend, Gershwin. Now that makes sense. However, he decided to call up all of his old school friends to see what they're doing nowadays. That makes sense too, but pages upon pages of describing to the reader in detail what each school friend who we have no idea who they are was unnecessary. I didn't even care that one of them died because I knew zilch about him.

There were a lot of unnecessary details like how the main character's favorite show was ER, but not just that, readers found out how to play ER Live and how he babysat one little girl and played Michael Jackson's album several times while she jumped on the couch, a visitor showed up, and she jumped on the couch again. At one point, there was an email about all of the famous people from Birmingham. Through about 85% of this novel, I was thinking "GET ON WITH THE STORY!" Pages of details could've been covered in a paragraph or two. After page 150, I gave up and just started reading the emails between Elaine and Matt, which was the most interesting part, and browsing the rest of the book until I got to a good part.

Pros: Chapter 54 (page 209) should've been right after Chapter 14 (page 63) when he and his father had a very entertaining "talk" about life. When Matt moved in with Ginnie, this story took off, readers got some drama, they learned more about the connection between him and Elaine, and Matt stopped complaining so much about turning thirty like it was the end of the world. I enjoyed all of the emailed conversations (minus the rambling and unnecessary facts) and very small, romantic things like Elaine knowing what time Matt was born. I was also impressed that the book did not end the way I convinced myself it would. I will not spoil it for those who haven't read it, but I would've bet money (and lost) that Matt would've ended up in a relationship with the woman who got him a Snoopy card and a self-assembly wine rack.

There was a scene when Matt had a fit about a woman picking out an outfit and another on him being dumped that was so amusingly male I couldn't have written it better myself. I think female writers generally have a hard time REALLY placing themselves inside of male characters. These are the types of details I look at in stories that make the sex of the characters seem so genuine.

End result: I'll give another one of this author's books a try since one of my Amazon friends likes Gayle a LOT, hope there is less rambling, and more of a pull to the actual plot instead of introductions and random characters because I liked the dialogue in it and enjoyment from reading from the male perspective.

suffice to say, i read this book last year (I was 29 and hoping it held all the answers), but I had to look it up to remember it.

I do remember being entertained by it, but it's not some great, life changing novel.

It was a decent, quick, light read, if a little fluffy and/or girly.

Good for a day on the beach (or waiting for the subway), I guess, but nothing life changing.

sorry, but boring characters and boring story. which would be ok if the prose was good or the insight acute. neither is true.