I blame Nick Hornby and Bridget Jones author, Helen Fielding. Their success has triggered a rash of twenty-something novels with bright covers and even brighter intentions.
So, here we have another addition to the pack - first-time author Mike Gayle and his story of an average young man still infatuated with his ex-girlfriend. Mike Gayle used to be agony uncle at J17, the magazine for teenage girls, and it seems as though he used his time there wisely. His story includes as many cultural reference points as possible to widen his book's appeal. Will is Everyman, or at least he's meant to be. But in the end this is where the book falls down: Will is just too bland, too inconsequential to really care about.
That and his constant obsessing over his ex. By the time Will eventually comes to his senses, it's too late; we've had enough. If you knew anyone like Will, you'd give him a good hard shake and tell him to get a life.
"A hilarious novel for anyone who has ever dumped, been dumped or lived in a dump," runs the blurb on the book jacket. And there are some nice touches of humor here. Gayle even takes us into the toilet with him and gives us his protagonists thoughts with his trousers around his ankles, giving new meaning to the phrase "toilet humor".
This is not a "black" book and of course, there's no reason why it should be just because its author happens to be black. And it's not a "guy" book in the way that Nick Hornby's novels are. Nor is it a "chick" book, in the vein of Bridget Jones; it falls somewhere in between.
I can easily see this book being turned into a nice, cosy "Brit" film by Channel Four, of the kind that used to be made in the mid-Eighties. And I'm sure Gayle can too, which is probably why he included his film pitch in the book; why waste time, after all?
And that's another reason why the book doesn't quite work for me; it's far too cynical an exercise, it's writing by numbers, if you like. Every now and again there are flashes of the writer I think Gayle would eventually like to be, but "My Legendary Girlfriend" is fiction-lite; a pleasant enough read, but a book you wouldn't be too worried about leaving behind on a plane.
