I think I love You

I was never a David Cassidy fan. I was a bit too young and he looked a little creepy by the time I did see pictures of him. I even sort of missed the craze over his half-brother Shaun so I never did the whole lunch box, pillowcase, poster thing. Still, I understand it. I was an 80s kid and my room was all Duran Duran. In I think I love You, Allison Pearson captures the life of a 13-year old misfit in the backwaters of Wales, crazy about David Cassidy. I say misfit, but who isn't at that age? Still, this one gives the term a run for its money. Petra is a cellist, for heavens sake and she's not allowed pop culture in the home. Her German mother unknowingly named her after a tv dog so she gets barked at in school. Even her mother's German-ness is a liability in a country that still remembers WWII in 1974.

The one thing that saves Petra is her friendship with Sharon over their mutual adoration of David Cassidy. And yes, like all other things at that age, both the friendship and the adoration suffer under betrayal.

The other important character is Bill, a recent graduate with a good and useless degree who, in essence, becomes David Cassidy for a magazine and ultimately creates the David Cassidy Quiz that will someday change Petra's life. But it doesn't happen right away because Petra's mom has no tolerance for pop music, pop stars, or anything that doesn't reek of high culture so that when Sharon and Petra do, amazingly, win the chance to meet their idol on the set of the Partridge Family, they don't even know it. It takes another 25 years for them to collect and everyone, everyone is a different person by then.

I really enjoyed this romp through fandom, youth, and middle-age. Pearson's writing is wonderful so that even when I saw some of the coincidences a mile away, I forgave her and enjoyed the ride. Her eye for what makes 13 torturous is perfect as when she has Petra explain why she could never dare disagree with a friend's opinion:...you could fall out. Then, before you knew it, you'd be back out there in the playground by yourself, sighing and checking your watch every couple of seconds to indicate that you did have an arrangement to meet someone and were not, in fact, the kind of sad, friendless person who had to pretend they were waiting for friends who did not exist."

And Bill, who cannot believe he has degraded himself to ghosting for a pop star who doesn't even know he's being ghosted has his little tantrum, comparing the fans to "peasants from 1321. You give them a bit of dead badger skull and tell them it's the funny bone of the Blessed Virgin Mary and they fall down in a dead faint and give you everything they own, including the cow. I am writing for peasants." And then he recovers, even becomes a little protective of his alter ego. This is what the world of fandom does to you.

Worlds collide not once but at least twice over the 25 years of this novel. Don't worry if it seems predictable or contrived just come on, get happy...

Okay, I couldn't resist that one.