How to Be Famous
Summary (from the publisher): A hilarious, heartfelt sequel to How to Build a Girl, the breakout novel from feminist sensation Caitlin Moran who the New York Times called, "rowdy and fearless . . . sloppy, big-hearted and alive in all the right ways."
You can’t have your best friend be famous if you’re not famous. It doesn’t work. You’re emotional pen-friends. You can send each other letters—but you’re not doing anything together. You live in different countries.
Johanna Morrigan (AKA Dolly Wilde) has it all: at eighteen, she lives in her own flat in London and writes for the coolest music magazine in Britain. But Johanna is miserable. Her best friend and man of her dreams John Kite has just made it big in 1994’s hot new BritPop scene. Suddenly John exists on another plane of reality: that of the Famouses.
Never one to sit on the sidelines, Johanna hatches a plan: she will Saint Paul his Corinthians, she will Jimmy his Pinocchio—she will write a monthly column, by way of a manual to the famous, analyzing fame, its power, its dangers, and its amusing aspects. In stories, girls never win the girl—they are won. Well, Johanna will re-write the stories, and win John, through her writing.
But as Johanna’s own star rises, an unpleasant one-night stand she had with a stand-up comedian, Jerry Sharp, comes back to haunt in her in a series of unfortunate consequences. How can a girl deal with public sexual shaming? Especially when her new friend, the up-and-coming feminist rock icon Suzanne Banks, is Jimmy Cricketing her?
For anyone who has been a girl or known one, who has admired fame or judged it, and above all anyone who loves to laugh till their sides ache, How to Be Famous is a big-hearted, hilarious tale of fame and fortune-and all they entail.
You can’t have your best friend be famous if you’re not famous. It doesn’t work. You’re emotional pen-friends. You can send each other letters—but you’re not doing anything together. You live in different countries.
Johanna Morrigan (AKA Dolly Wilde) has it all: at eighteen, she lives in her own flat in London and writes for the coolest music magazine in Britain. But Johanna is miserable. Her best friend and man of her dreams John Kite has just made it big in 1994’s hot new BritPop scene. Suddenly John exists on another plane of reality: that of the Famouses.
Never one to sit on the sidelines, Johanna hatches a plan: she will Saint Paul his Corinthians, she will Jimmy his Pinocchio—she will write a monthly column, by way of a manual to the famous, analyzing fame, its power, its dangers, and its amusing aspects. In stories, girls never win the girl—they are won. Well, Johanna will re-write the stories, and win John, through her writing.
But as Johanna’s own star rises, an unpleasant one-night stand she had with a stand-up comedian, Jerry Sharp, comes back to haunt in her in a series of unfortunate consequences. How can a girl deal with public sexual shaming? Especially when her new friend, the up-and-coming feminist rock icon Suzanne Banks, is Jimmy Cricketing her?
For anyone who has been a girl or known one, who has admired fame or judged it, and above all anyone who loves to laugh till their sides ache, How to Be Famous is a big-hearted, hilarious tale of fame and fortune-and all they entail.
Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from HarperCollins.
Following Moran's novel How to Build a Girl, this novel continues the story of Johanna Morrigan who is known as Dolly Wilde. The year is 1994, the place is London, and Johanna is an 18 year old living in her own flat and writing for music magazines, while hopelessly pining after her friend John Kite who is now a hot new musician. In navigating the adult world of London, Johanna has an unpleasant one night stand that comes back to haunt her in the form of public sexual shaming.
When I requested this book from HarperCollins, I somehow missed that it was a sequel to Moran's earlier work and mistakenly thought it was merely her next novel. This was immensely frustrating because I didn't know Johanna's back story or her relationship with her family or history with John Kite. However, I was still able to read and appreciate the book with relative ease. But I would still recommend reading the first novel before reading this one.
This novel is one part coming of age story, one part comedy, one part feminist battle cry, and one part look into the lives of famous musicians. Although set in the mid 1990s, it was incredibly relevant for today, with it's emphasis on the meaning of sexual consent and features a woman claiming her voice rather than continuing to allow a man to own her story. Although I don't find the music industry of the British 1990s particularly fascinating, this novel's snappy pacing, clever characters, and most of all its humor, won me over. Johanna is a terrifically funny narrator, popping out smart lines like "he looked like Henry VIII trying to get the lid off a jam jar. Some jam he really wanted" (183).
Stars: 3
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