The colorful cover of the book and its glitzy (and ditzy) Hollywood backdrop easily lure the reader in, for a quick beach or travel read. The chapters are set up as vignettes to showcase various Hollywood types and their messy lives – and how heroine Jane, a professional organizer (think a cross between a celebrity assistant and a devotee of lifestyle guru Marie Kondo), can brave the traffic of Los Angeles freeways and twisty/turny roads in the Hollywood Hills to save them all.
Author Mike Chessler has written and produced numerous television shows and in his first novel he gives the reader an insider’s peek at the film industry and the peripheral occupations it supports. Jane visits many Hollywood types – from a young television actress to a not-too-successful but constantly hustling producer to a fading classic movie star. As we meet each client in each chapter it can be fun for the reader to try and guess what real-life celebrities may have provided the author with some inspiration. One thing all of Jane’s clients have in common is the tendency to overshop – or to hold onto – numerous objects in their lives. Our personal closets may not be overstuffed with Hermès scarves or action figures, but the compulsion to collect things – Jane (and all of us, I suspect) can find highly relatable.
Mess tells the story of Jane and her Hollywood clients well – and that could have simply been it. But Mess also delivers a thoughtful, sometimes poignant story of a young woman trying to discover what she really wants in her life – what to keep and what to discard. Including (or not) a lackadaisical (to her tastes) boyfriend. Jane spends a lot of time analyzing her clients as she sorts and catalogues discarded designer duds – and occasionally decides to slip a piece (or two or three) into her bag to add to her own collection. She could stand to learn a bit about herself, but will she?
The prose may seem a little highfalutin on occasion, but that actually suits the ultra-perfectionist protagonist Jane to a T. Do I make her sound a bit of a mess and difficult to like? She definitely is, at times. But Mess isn’t. The book and all its characters are highly enjoyable.
Full disclosure – the author is a friend.
