- Softcover
- Used
Seller: WeBuyBooks, Rossendale, LANCS, United KingdomWeBuyBooks
AbeBooks seller since November 14, 2005
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 1.10
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.
Seller Inventory # rev9413857005
- Title
- Personality
- Author
- Andrew O'Hagan
- Publisher
- Qpd
- Publication year
- 2003
- Condition
- Very Good
- Binding
- paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0571219004
- ISBN 13
- 9780571219001
- Item weight
- 281.2 grams
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
The novel opens at the height of the Silver Jubilee festivities. The Tambinis, whose individual stories also drive and augment the narrative, are Italian immigrants. Haunted by a few unresolved ghosts from the war, they struggle to make a living in Rothesay, a resort whose tourist trade has been decimated by "jet engines, Thomson holidays and Lloret de Mar". Rosa, Maria's neurotic mother, runs the chip shop; Uncle Alfredo is a hairdresser and Grandmother Lucia simply nurses memories of her long dead first child, Sofia, "a lovely singer". The weight of their dysfunctional aspirations, not unsurprisingly, fall on 13-year-old Maria. Spotted by a TV talent scout, she wins Opportunity Knocks. Leaving the family far behind, she moves to London and, briefly, takes the international world of light entertainment by storm. The speed with which she is estranged from her old life is neatly, if not completely believably, illustrated in her correspondence with a one-time best friend: while Kalpana chats about Gormenghast and the boys she fancies, Maria's increasingly brief and self-absorbed missives start to read like extracts from beauty manuals.
O'Hagan may indulge in what is best described as "product placement" period detail (references to Girl's World, Cola Cubes and McEwan's Export etc) but this is certainly not an exercise in 1970s and 80s nostalgia. In harking back to a slightly more innocent era, a period when both eating disorders and the downsides of fame were certainly less well publicised, if not well known, this impressive novel makes resonant points about our unwavering obsession with celebrity. "Nowadays", O'Hagan's Hughie Green grumbles, "the kids don't want to be good and they don't care about being the best: they want fame". Plus ça change. --Travis Elborough
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
WeBuyBooks
Rossendale, LANCS, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since November 14, 2005
Shipping rates from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
| Item | 5 to 10 business days | 5 to 10 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 5.44 | £ 5.44 |
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General Secondhand BooksSeller's business information
Revival Books Ltd
Unit 11 Hugh Business Park, Bacup Road, Waterfoot
Rossendale, United Kingdom BB4 7BT
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WeBuyBooks
Hall Carr Mill
Fallbarn Road
Rawtenstall
Lancashire BB4 7NX
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Authorised Representatives: Michael Lane and Damian Carr
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