Anthony McGowan is baffled, humiliated, embarrassed and ever so slightly amused. And that’s just the time when he picks up a giveaway in a student union bar thinking it’s a pink wafer biscuit, only to find he now has very public ownership of a chlamydia testing kit. This is his life in The Art of Failing, where every day (and there’s a whole year’s worth of entries) in this YA author’s north London existence has the potential for the ridiculous and the banal. Dishwashers need fixing, knickers need buying and there are titles such as They Should Make Maltesers in the Shape of a Guillemot’s Egg. He may have written the streetwise The Knife That Killed Me but he doesn’t know a drug dealer from a driving instructor. It’s effectively a compendium of McGowan’s sharply written Facebook posts, which means that The Art of Failing is perfect to dip into for entertainingly bite-sized anecdotes but, taken as a whole, slightly inconsequential. That’s life, eh?
• The Art of Failing by Anthony McGowan is published by Oneworld (£12.99). To order a copy for £11.04 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
