I bring free books to Slog Happy, and Slog commenters who read the books are encouraged to send me reviews for everyone to enjoy. Claire took a shot at reading Nick Laird's novel Glover’s Mistake. Here's her review. Any problems you may have with this review are no doubt the fault of the editor. I am the editor.

Nick Laird’s Glover’s Mistake offers plenty of opportunities for the Omniscient Reader experience. Glover is not very self-aware, and he’s not very good at imagining the consequences of his actions. Naturally, he is going to blunder around. But Laird has told the Omniscient Reader everything, so she can see where Glover’s blunders are leading. Also the blunders of his flat-mate David. Omniscient One feels wiser and smarter than poor Glover, and less fucked-up than David.

Glover shares an apartment in London with David. Both guys are marginal. David is an English teacher and not an artist, poet, or novelist, as he had hoped. He writes a blog, The Damp Reviewer. Glover is a virginal Christian who works at a bar with his muscled-up cousin. But they are also friends of a sort, one of the lures of the book. David and Glover are friends the way girlfriends in TV series are, silly, kind and sweet sometimes, lazy, stupid, nasty, and plotting at other times. (I believe this genre is called “lad-lit.”) David introduces Glover to his teacher from art school, Ruth, an older woman, an American, an artist, alluring. Indeed, David has his eye on her. But Ruth goes for Glover. A Ruth-Glover romance comes to a boil, and David begins to simmer. Hilarity ensues. Glover (who acts about 17) proposes to Ruth (who is a totally self-involved 47-year-old), and they plan the wedding. Stuff happens the night before the wedding. Et voila! Glover’s mistake.

But the semi-dorky plot is saved by the semi-intriguing lad-friendship thing, and the writing, especially the characters. The guys’ middle-class English parents, including a totally creepy Christian dad, are hilarious. Laird nails Ruth’s gritty, angry daughter and her zoned-out boyfriend, and the slimy too-rich London art scene twits. The American lesbians are perfectly fabulous. Best of all, it’s in English, not translated into American. The English-y references to places and things are lots of fun. You know you are reading a non-American novel. Yay! Also, you can tell that Laird is also a poet. I envy his lexical creativity. He taught me a new verb, to slope. Poor David and Glover slope all over the place, e.g. “James Glover sloped from the lobby.” It’s a good port-manteau-type word, and I’m keeping it for my own.

Many thanks to Slog tipper Claire for the fun, informative review. If you've read a book that you've taken from Slog Happy, you can send me a book review here.