Turning Thirty

The world's most easy-going computer programmer has a midlife crisis—sort of.

British author Gayle (My Legendary Girlfriend, 2002) takes a purportedly shattering situation—such as turning 30—and gives it a decently entertaining and insightful spin. Matt Beckford is the almost-30-year-old who narrates the story. Originally from Birmingham, England, he is living in New York with cute and fun Elaine. They eventually decide that the spark has gone out of their relationship and that it's time to break up (but stay friends, of course). So Matt arranges a transfer to his company's Australia office (change of pace and scenery and all), effective three months from then. In the interim, he moves back to his parents' house to reconnect with some old friends and get his bearings. You see, Matt's not exactly a grownup (a grownup, in his mind, is defined as someone who not only buys, but actually uses, a wine rack), but now that his 30th is just around the corner, he wants to get on track to adulthood. Of course, living with Mom and Dad, and hanging out with his high-school drinking buddies and Ginny (Matt's longtime on-again, off-again pseudo-girlfriend), is not exactly the best way to do it. But the reader should have no fear that Matt will be able to sort things out one way or another, since Gayle is not one for being a downer.

A good-natured book: free of histrionics but a tad overly sentimental.