Glover's Mistake (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. It's hard to like a self-appointed cultural critic, but teacher-by-day, blogger-by-night David Pinner makes it schadenfreude-fun when he turns his loathing scope on his closest friends and then himself in Laird's latest (after Utterly Monkey). David, an oafish 35-year-old Londoner, reunites with Ruth Marks, the gorgeous and famous 47-year-old American artist who briefly taught him (and promptly forgot him) in college. David falls for her while she's in town for an artist-in-residence program, but Ruth prefers David's bartending flatmate, Glover, a 23-year-old virgin grappling with faith and the father he's left behind. Though David succinctly lambastes the very idea of love (Information killed it), he plots to wedge himself between Glover and Ruth—sometimes with an epically intense dishonesty. Whether David is saving his sometimes overwhelmingly flawed friends from a tragic error or making one himself—or both—the book offers a bit of twisted redemption in its hilarious nod to selfishness of all stripes. (July)
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From The New Yorker

David Pinner is a lonely, overweight thirty-five-year-old English teacher, who pseudonymously writes a dyspeptic London culture blog, The Damp Review, where he is “unafraid, hard-boiled, outrageous.” When David becomes friends with his former teacher Ruth Marks, a prominent American artist, he senses that “his life had turned a corner,” and when she falls for his handsome young flatmate, James Glover, he refuses to be marginalized. Laird convenes a cast of enjoyably catty art-world types, and grants David, even as he longs to be included, an unsparing awareness of their affectations, “their casual manners and ironic patter, their insinuation that surface was depth.” The attempts at wit mostly fall short, but the cultural insights are persuasive—artistic analogy gives “endless, untrue hope for reconciling everything.” As David’s preoccupation with Ruth and James becomes increasingly malevolent, an archetype emerges: the disaffected blogger, “searching not for things to love but a place to put his rage.”
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (July 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670020974
• ISBN-13: 978-0670020973
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #195,637 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Controversy Becomes Cliche, June 22, 2009

By	Book Dork (Southern California) - See all my reviews

(What's this?)

Glover's Mistake is about the love triangle between lonely, single David, his young roommate Glover, and Ruth, an eccentric, middle-aged artist.

A Few Positives
- Ruth's daughter Bridget is probably the most dynamic, interesting character in the novel. Sassy, rebellious and intelligent she enjoys pointing out her mother's hypocrisies.
- David's bitter sarcasm can be entertaining.

The Negatives
- Controversy becomes cliche; blogging, snorting coke, older women dating younger men, religion, and modern art. Laird is trying too hard to connect with this generation. He instead should have picked one or two and really developed the issues.
- The scheming that occurs in the second half of the novel is contrived and an obviously desperate attempt to add excitement to the plot.
- The three main characters aren't interesting or well-developed.
- Laird is trying to monopolize on the whole "cougar" trend currently occurring. This would be fine if he was being innovative about it- he is not. The relationship follows the exact trend you would expect.

Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with this novel and would not recommend it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Death of Love in the Modern World, July 29, 2009

By	M. D. Stern (Yorba Linda, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

I didn't really expect to like this book very much, and the first chapter was a little difficult for me to get through. However, once I started the second chapter, I was completely swept up into these lives, and wanted to see where this would go.

The story revolves around the lives of 3 people:

David Pinner - a teacher in him mid-30s, who uses his internet blog to attempt to connect emotionally to the world around him.

James Glover - a young, gorgeous bartender, who is dealing with his own set of insecurities and human frailties.

Ruth Marks - a good-looking artist in her mid-40s who, despite the demons in her own life, still holds out hope that happiness is just around the next corner.

When David re-connects with Ruth after 10+ years, he finds himself attracted to her and feels a relationship could work. Through David, Ruth meets James, who is David flatmate, and Ruth and James begin a romantic relationship. David makes up the third side of this triangle.

What is played out so well in this novel are the play of emotions from the characters. None of these people are heroes, none are comendable. All these characters have selfish motives. Yet, they all care for one another. There were times in this book when I thought, "Well, I'd never do that!" Only to back track and correct myself by thinking, "Yeah, if I was honest, I probably would." In many ways this story is painful to read, as it exposes how hurtful and emotional we can be when involved with others. On the flip side, it also shows how loyal and strong bonds can be when we know we are needed.

This book had a dark, somber tone to it, and admittedly, when I finished it I felt drained emotionally. I felt the author had taken me for quite a ride, but I enjoy that from a book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Witty, at times, but insuffciently so, July 18, 2009

By	Dave "Dave" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

(What's this?)

While this book is set, ever so superficially, in the London art scene, it has virtually nothing to do with either London or any art scene. Yes, there are a couple of openings, and yes, there are a few lines of coke, but it's all irrelevant to the story - these people could have been working at a laundry in Des Moines for all it mattered.

It starts out slowly, as the protagonist (David) seems dreary from the first, and nothing changes that. While his internal dialog is occasionally witty, it's at strange odds with his conversation, which is puerile, and often embarassing to the reader.

We're supposed to see this as a love triangle, in which David's unreturned infatuation with the artist Ruth is derailed when she becomes involved with David's flatmate Glover. David broods, whines, and eventually manipulates a destruction of Ruth and Glover's relationship. This might seem sad, except that one doesn't really care what happens to the relationship: Ruth is unsympathetic, and Glover always seems in way over his head.

Glover's mistake, which ends his relationship with Ruth, seems inconsistent with his character and ends the novel on a false note that reflects a lack of imagination on the writer's part.

Miss this.