The story unfolds over 24 hours in the life of a struggling art museum in New York City. As it begins, the director, Diane Schwebe, is called in before dawn; it appears that part of their South Asian collection might have been looted from India. There never would be a good time for that news, but it’s especially unwelcome today; the museum’s annual gala is being held that night, when donors and celebrities will be arriving to see and be seen— and a quiet send-off for a retiring museum trustee the night before has put half the stuff out of action, thanks to suspect shrimp.

As Diane tries frantically to put out all of these fires in time for the gala, other staff begin to arrive, and the cast of characters comes to life. There’s Benjamin, the brand-new curator of film coming in for his first (and maybe his last) day of work, running from both commitment and a violent loan shark. There’s Shay, the long taken-for-granted head of security for the museum, who has taken a look at the Chinese lion sculpture given to the museum by a donor who expects to see it highlighted at the gala— and Shay is absolutely sure that it’s a fake. There’s Niko, the sous-chef who has an unexpected promotion that he’s not sure he wants in the wake of Shrimpgate, and Katherine from costumes, who has recently discovered that she’s pregnant and is trying to decide what to do about it – and also whether she can get away with “borrowing” one of the designer dresses from the collection to wear tonight to the gala.

As the day gathers speed and hurdles toward the gala, the tension builds. 

All of these characters seemed like real people to me. While the story is powered by their dramas, large and small, overall this is a book about people living their lives, a snapshot of small victories, big defeats and massive regrets, the human desire to make connections and the way we so often sabotage ourselves in trying to do so. McGowan writes about these people with so much compassion as they give too much to an institution that doesn’t really care about them, and as they all seek some kind of human connection, whether with family, coworkers, lovers, always hopeful but too often disappointed. It felt like a book about life, in 24 hours. 

In the last hundred pages I cried. I also at one point laughed so hard that my cat abandoned my lap in disgust. Reading this book was such an emotional experience. I adored it!

Two quick caveats though – McGowan makes you do a little work at the beginning. For one thing, she’s not using regular quote marks, but instead doing something with dialogue I’ve never seen before. The thing is that it works, and once you adjust to it it reads beautifully, just flows by. I don’t mind authors being innovative with punctuation as long as they have a good reason! 

The other caveat is that the number of people you get introduced to in the first 25 pages is a little staggering. Happily there’s a cast of characters in the front and I found myself consulting that more than a few times in the beginning until I figured out who everyone was, and then it was smooth sailing. Not quite sure how that would work in an audiobook, though! Hopefully they have a really expressive reader…

I loved this book, it’s not just one of the best books of this year in my opinion, it may be one of the best books I’ve read in the last decade. 

Oh, and there’s a lot about art!



Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan