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The Love Song Of Johnny Valentine (2000)

by Teddy Wayne(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

review 1: This is the story of an eleven year old Bieber-esque child star on tour. A fascinating read (especially for anyone like me who is quite fascinated by the cult and culture of celebrity) but objectively, it was only almost good.Praise first, because why not?-The 'behind-the-scenes' stuff felt authentic, though not wildly insightful. I mean, if you don't follow celebrity news it might be insightful but I was mostly like, yep, that seems right. Apart from the musical stuff. I don't know anything about the technical side of music.-Characterisation. Even though Jonny and his mother (and all the other people we meet) are complete stereotypes, the author elevates them to be fully-realised and solid,fleshed-out characters. They don't feel like stand-ins for actual famous people. -J... moreonny himself was totally interesting. I loved when he was bratty and my heart broke when he was mistreated and overworked and confused. -I really liked Walter. Oh, Walter. The Latchkeys were cool, tooSo even though it kind of gave me the feeling like I was watching something personal unfold that I shouldn't be seeing (which i assume was the whole point of getting behind the scenes) I enjoyed the book.However there were lots of things I disliked too-The voice was blah. Even though Jonny as a narrator was a fully-realised, there wasn't anything much to make his voice unique. All of the dialogue was a bit too on the nose, too. -So the voice issue led to the perspective having issues. There could have been more examples of the reading knowing more than Jonny did to make it more effective.-The structure was totally unexciting-The grand reunion at the end was less sweet and more the cause of second-hand embarrassment.-Like [book:The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.|16045140, it was too clever for its own good. I could practically see the author simultaneously labouring behind the scenes and also patting himself on the back for how sharp he was being. It totally fell apart with the satirical magazine article and I never regained my trust in the author-Honestly some of the content was too much for me. Like the author was trying to be edgy and voyeuristic just for the sake of it. In my life, I often employ the philosophy of asking myself 1)Does this need to be said? 2)Does it need to be said by me? and 3)Does it need to be said right now?. If the answer to all three isn't yes, than I probably should keep my mouth shut.I apply the same standards to writing. I can totally get behind the author having this story of the life of a child star to tell. But I don't think eleven year olds getting blowjobs and witnessing their mother's involvement in sadly kinky sex acts needed to be part of this story, at least not in such a clumsy delivery. I know it's just a character but since no-one in Jonny's life really respected him, I wish the author had instead.
review 2: Dunque, quando nell'epigrafe ho visto una citazione di Justin Bieber accostata a una dei Clash mi è venuta una piccola crisi isterica, ma mi sono consolata pensando che sicuramente era una cosa ironica. E in effetti è così. Credo.La storia di Jonny Valentine, popstar undicenne, è amaramente buffa e fa riflettere. Seguire questo ragazzino che mescola videogame e linguaggio manageriale da popstar navigata è spiazzante e affascinante, e il personaggio è ben costruito, consapevole di sé e molto professionale, ma pur sempre un bambino.La madre Jane è la sua manager, e pur amandolo molto deve compiere scelte difficili, assumersi responsabilità, cosa ancor più complicata visto che a mano a mano che il tour va avanti emergono tutte le sue fragilità. Jonny è in cerca del padre, che non vede da anni, e cerca di contattarlo di nascosto dalla madre. Ma non è facile essere una popstar, controllato ogni minuto, senza privacy, senza tranquillità, senza potersi permettere di fare qualche cazzata preadolescenziale.L'idea è buona, nonostante io non sopporti le popstar, a maggior ragione quelle ancora imberbi. Solo che forse il libro è troppo lungo, e alla fine rischia di annoiare, si trascina un po' lentamente perdendo un pizzico di verve.Una bella riflessione su cosa significhi essere famosi in giovanissima età, ma non molto di più. Non è affatto un libro sciocco o per ragazzini, anzi, ma dopo un po' stanca. less

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