The Museum of Ordinary People - Mike Gayle

Author: Mike Gayle

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Rating: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: Outlier opinion, sorry. I think my expectations were too high. The book met some of them, but disappointed in other ways. It's still a nice story, but could have been a memorable work with some tweaks.

Story Synopsis:

Jess has recently lost her mother and is struggling to cope with her grief. Her most precious possession from among her mother's belongings is a set of old encyclopaedias, but she has no place to keep them in the apartment she shares with her partner Guy. A friend tells her of an odd place named "The Museum of Ordinary People" that accepts donations of such old, valued things that people love but can't keep. When Jess visits the museum, her life changes, both personally as well as professionally.

The story comes to us in the first person pov of Jess.

While the museum angle is one of the key story arcs, the book actually contains a mesh of interconnected tracks.

1. All things related to the Museum of Ordinary People.
2. Jess's relationship with her long-term boyfriend Guy.
3. Jess's struggle accepting the death of her mother. (This track begins a year back and moves ahead to join the contemporary timeline.)

There are also two relatively minor tracks that aren't elaborated upon until the final quarter of the book: the identity of Jess's father, and the mysterious reason the old owner of the museum Mr. Barclay willed his entire belongings to a complete stranger and current owner, Alex Brody.

Of all of these, my favourite by far was the one about the museum. It was almost flawless! Had the entire story been set only around this track, this book would have been a five star read for me. I loved the idea of the museum and the intention of the owners. I also relished seeing Jess and Alex give their best to the restoration. The geek in me was mighty pleased.

Jess's grief over her mother's passing comes a close second. These sections were very heavy on the emotions and some of the content got to me. I ended up taking unplanned breaks whenever these sections came up because my mind constantly wandered into thoughts of what I would do when I inevitably have to handle the same situation in the future for my parents. I loved the writing but hated the way it stirred up sad musings.

The remaining tracks generated mixed feelings. Jess's lack of communication and openness with Guy was frustrating, and the issues with their relationship were too repetitive and dragged. The secret behind Alex receiving the bounty from Mr. Barclay was worth waiting for but came too late. I wish it had been explored more. The mystery behind Jess's dad's identity was my least favourite part of the story. It was too neat.

The secondary character development is quite good. Alex, Jess's best friend Luce, Jess's old neighbours Dougie and Maggie, the museum helpers Dec, Paul and Angel - all had interesting and distinct personalities. But Jess somehow didn't win my heart despite the outstanding opportunity she had. Her personality wavers between underconfident to overconfident and it was difficult to see both aspects at work simultaneously.

One thing that bugged me was the shoddy detailing of Jess's character. Her age isn't mentioned till the 68% mark. Her race is mentioned once in passing as Black but it isn't used anywhere in the story. (By "used", I mean that she is written like every other stock white character – there is nothing to make her stand out as Black. If you missed that one reference, you wouldn’t even think of her as Black.) It felt like the mention of 'Black' was a token gesture just to ensure racial diversity. There's nothing about her hair, height, looks,... I've always seen male authors go to the extreme when it comes to describing female characters (rather, their physical attributes.) This book was on the other end of the spectrum. I simply couldn't visualise Jess because of this, and this probably increased my level of disconnect.

The book could also have been better in its plot development. There are too many convenient coincidences, some of which were tough to digest. The last 20% in particular goes over the top in making supposedly shocking revelations and tying up the loose ends. Until the 75-80% mark, I was hovering between 3.5-3.75 stars. The finale crashed the rating.

All in all, there are many enjoyable attributes to the book, and if you avoid using your inner critic too much, you'll certainly like it a lot more. My inner critic unfortunately refuses to die. As such, I liked it but didn't love it. The slow pace didn't help.

I haven’t read a Mike Gayle book before, though I have heard a lot of his writing. So it’s disappointing to have such a flat first experience of his work. Nevertheless, I shall definitely try out more of his books to see if they match me better.

Mine is a strong outlier review, so do check other positive reviews before you take a call about this book.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Museum of Ordinary People”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.