The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 18 March 2011
by Allison Pearson
The teen heartthrob might be a creation of our media age, a concept that has grown as the world has shrunk with increasing media access, from movies to radio to television to the internet. The need for some love surrogate, some inaccessible perfection upon which to rest our desires, this need might be deeply innate and even necessary as a part of our transition from childhood to adulthood. By no means is this confined to the world of girls and young women, but the screaming hoards of pre-teen girls do seem to be a common element in the heartthrob phenomenon. Each generation has its teen idol. (Justin Beiber? Surely Leonardo DiCaprio is now a bit old for it.) Notable idols of the past include Elvis, the Beatles, Bobby Sherman, Lief Garrett, and any number of manufactured pretty-boy entertainers. One of these was, of course, David Cassidy, son of actors and star of The Partridge Family, which today seems the height of early 1970s camp. But it is hard to grasp the vast extent of Cassidy's allure and of his sprawling fan base. (This writer's own big sister was a big fan, and he can recall playing her Partridge Family records when she wasn't at home.) Cassidy, as with all such heartthrobs, was the perfect androgynous embodiment of pure undying love for millions of lovesick teen girls. This is the heart of this warm, reflective novel. Petra is a girl growing up in Wales, the distant reaches of the UK, where she and her friends pore over every issue of The Essential David Cassidy Magazine, they kiss his portrait, memorize his favorite things, and each is sure that if he knew her, she'd be his perfect mate. In the meantime, Bill Finn, a young writer laments his work at the magazine, impersonating Cassidy for the adoring fans, when he'd much rather be a hip music writer. The book shifts from Petra's first person account of her childhood, as if filtered from a diary, and Bill's third person experience at the magazine, a cynical world of men and women who have never even met the teen idol they represent. The first half of the book is witty and well-observed. Perhaps women would most closely relate to these characters and the complex social world of teenaged girls, but it is a coming-of-age story that goes well beyond nostalgia for girls. Bill and Petra's stories converge at Cassidy's penultimate concert at the White City stadium in 1974, at which, in real life, a girl died in the crush of fans. Cut now to 1998. Petra is grown, Bill has moved up in the magazine business, and Cassidy's career simmers on in Las Vegas. Petra is evaluating her life after her mother's death and her divorce. She discovers an opportunity to meet David Cassidy was long-since missed, but contrives to claim that opportunity now. This becomes a journey of discovering those little forgotten things in our past that help to make us who we are now. The second half of the book turns more serious than the first, differing in tone and narrational viewpoint. It is, however, a well thought-out reflection on the nature of ourselves, the places we seek our love, and what we do to convince ourselves that we've found that love. The book is thoughtful and reflective, nostalgic without being syrupy. As Cassidy is a living breathing person in this work of fiction, Pearson treads lightly on his life and identity, an effort that can't have been entirely easy for an author. She deftly keeps our focus on her heroes and heroines. Petra and her best friend Sharon stand out, once we've got to know them. It is a warm tale of growing up in the modern media circus in which we seem to be perpetually immersed.