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A review by nebulous_tide
The Man I Think I Know by Mike Gayle
3.0
Good, but not great. Don’t get me wrong, I wept through parts of it, with happiness for the characters, or at poignant or lovely moments. But there were many flaws in this tale. It was all too damn perfect. None of the characters’ decisions seemed to matter because nothing bad ever happened.
Danny’s back story made no sense. James’ parents were vacuous to the point of not being believable. Vicky’s whole character changed. The Baylis thing was an anti-climax. Even Danny’s speech in the Epilogue just wouldn’t have worked in that setting.
What I really did enjoy was the friendship between James and Danny. That felt real, alive and worth reading. But even that friendship was too perfect. It’s like someone had been through the manuscript with the editor’s equivalent of a Photoshop airbrush and removed all the blemishes. Removed all the realism.
I feel the author wanted to write a different story, but kept shying away from it at the last minute. I feel like all the interesting parts of this tale happened before and after the book.
Maybe it’s just not for me.
Danny’s back story made no sense. James’ parents were vacuous to the point of not being believable. Vicky’s whole character changed. The Baylis thing was an anti-climax. Even Danny’s speech in the Epilogue just wouldn’t have worked in that setting.
What I really did enjoy was the friendship between James and Danny. That felt real, alive and worth reading. But even that friendship was too perfect. It’s like someone had been through the manuscript with the editor’s equivalent of a Photoshop airbrush and removed all the blemishes. Removed all the realism.
I feel the author wanted to write a different story, but kept shying away from it at the last minute. I feel like all the interesting parts of this tale happened before and after the book.
Maybe it’s just not for me.