Friends of the Museum - by Heather McGowan

About the Book

When Diane Schwebe, the director of a major New York museum, is awakened in the early morning by a text message from the museum's lawyer, it is the start of a twenty-four hour roller-coaster ride. Diane has sacrificed many things in her life to help the fading institution stave off irrelevance and financial ruin. In this battle, she's surrounded by her stalwart supporters: her enigmatic and tireless personal assistant, Chris; the museum's trusty head of security, Shay; and its general counsel, Henry -- a man whose ability to weasel his way out of a jam is matched only by his capacity to avoid learning anything from the experience. Orbiting Diane is a motley assortment of museum employees, each on the precipice of collapse or revelation: among them a line cook staring down a huge opportunity he's not sure he wants; a costume curator stuck in an inescapable rut; and the ambivalent curator of the museum's film program, whose first day on the job might very well be his last. On this day of the museum's annual gala, every plate that Diane has kept spinning will fall and by daybreak, someone will be dead. Wise, surprising, and darkly funny, Friends of the Museum is a kaleidoscopic tragicomedy that surges along to the unstoppable tick of the clock, leaving you on the edge of your seat until the final second.

Book Synopsis

Coworkers at a legendary but troubled New York City museum struggle with issues large and small over the course of one extraordinary day in this whip-smart novel that is "satirical and incisive...like nothing you've ready before" (Town & Country).

When Diane Schwebe, the director of a major New York museum, is awakened in the early morning by a text message from the museum's lawyer, it is the start of a twenty-four-hour roller-coaster ride.

Diane has sacrificed many things in her life to help the fading institution stave off irrelevance and financial ruin. In this battle, she's surrounded by her stalwart supporters: her enigmatic and tireless personal assistant; the museum's trusty head of security; and its general counsel--a man whose ability to weasel his way out of a jam is matched only by his capacity to avoid learning anything from the experience.

Orbiting Diane is a motley assortment of museum employees, each on the precipice of collapse or revelation: among them a line cook staring down a huge opportunity he's not sure he wants; a costume curator stuck in an inescapable rut; and the ambivalent curator of the museum's film program, whose first day on the job might very well be his last.

On this day of the museum's annual gala, every plate that Diane has kept spinning will fall and by daybreak, someone will be dead.

Wise, surprising, and darkly funny, Friends of the Museum is a kaleidoscopic "marvel" (Mona Awad, author of Bunny) that surges along to the unstoppable tick of the clock, leaving you on the edge of your seat until the final second.

Review Quotes

"[An] ambitious, lovingly satirical send-up of the art world [with] an addictive rhythm . . . . A capacious story that pulsates with life."
--Library Journal

"A clever and risk-taking piece of work . . . . McGowan's writing style is a combination of the stream-of-consciousness writing of William S. Burroughs and the complexity of a Thomas Pynchon novel."
--BookReporter

"A fun, immersive read . . . . With energetic prose and setting so deep and fully realized, reading Friends of the Museum feels similar to binge-watching a great television series."
--The Post and Courier (SC)

"Inside a New York City Museum: flirting, fund-raising and fraud . . . Clever . . . McGowan exploits the potential of her workplace setting with ruthless precision, the museum's staff offering endless possibilities for sociopolitical commentary, interpersonal dalliances, economic hypocrisies and questions of cultural legacy."
--The New York Times

"Friends of the Museum is a marvel. I devoured this novel with such pleasure and finished with chills, dazzled by its sheer life. I'm in awe of Heather McGowan's virtuosic talent. The depth of her compassion, her sharp eye and wry humor and, above all, her peerlessly rich and brilliant imagination that can conjure all of life, its singular, jangly wonder, in a day at the museum. One of my favorite novelists writing today."
--Mona Awad, bestselling author of Rouge and Bunny

"A satirical and incisive look at arts institutions and those who love them, Friends of the Museum is like nothing you've read before."
--Town & Country