Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan
Recently when buying a book at my local bookstore, the clerk said, as she cheerfully took my credit card, “It [ my purchase] is slow at the beginning but stick with it.”
Not what I want to hear as lay out $30 for a book! Stick with it is what you say about the grapefruit diet or geometry.
Fortunately, the clerk was wrong. Friends of the Museum is entertaining, even propulsive; I read it in two days.
The novel is, however, 100% dialogue and has so many characters that there is a Cast List. Often, I had no idea what a character was talking about or to whom until twenty pages later.
This requires a certain alertness.
The novel chronicles an important day at a New York City museum in the 2010s. The narrative follows staff as they prepare for the institution’s big fundraiser, a Met-inspired gala titled (irony unintentional) “One Hundred and Fifty Years of the Bohemian: Outsiders Looking In.”
The day gets off to an inauspicious start as the beleaguered Director of the Museum, Diane, hears that several Indian statues, currently on view, were acquired illegally, major donors are dithering, and a dozen employees succumbed to food poisoning after a museum sponsored retirement party.
It is going to be a long day.
In rapid succession we meet Diane’s colleagues, who are more focused on their luckless personal lives than the gala, Chris, Diane’s assistant (driven); Henry, General Counsel (dishonest); Clive, Curator of European Paintings (depressed); Shay, Chief Security Officer (downtrodden); Katherine, Associate Curator of Costume (delusional); and Benjamin, Curator of Film (desperate).
No one is delighted except the big donors who swan about, egomaniacal, and slightly ridiculous. “Silicon Valley” (prospective) donor, Zedekiah (currently under investigation for violating child labor laws; prefers to be called “Z”) is doubly delighted as he plans to detonate a big surprise at the gala.
Other cast members include (but not limited to!) fashion designer, event planner, chef, the Japanese Ambassador, art dealer, and bodyguard.
This is a big book in every way, not only the sheer number of characters, but the big issues such as (but not limited to!) racism, economic disparity, infidelity, and cultural legacy, that are slyly introduced as we zip through the day at a breakneck pace.
The dark humor and a frenetic fin de siècle atmosphere add up to a slightly exhausting but rewarding read.