Child Star Book

Gerald, the protagonist of Child Star, the fifth novel from literary wunderkind and new puritan Matt Thorne, bears a few scars from his brush with celebrity. A not inconsiderable measure of his pain is provided by his obsession with scuzz rock geniuses Royal Trux. As a teenager Gerald starred in All Right Now!, a real-life TV docu-drama. By his early 20s however, fame was long gone. He was at the end of an eight-year relationship, working at a language school and living in an unorthodox shared house in Oval. (The praise heaped upon this south London district may lead some readers to wonder if, à la Fay Weldon, Thorne received sponsorship from Lambeth council.) Best friend Sally offered support and shared (platonically) a freshly purchased double bed while he attempted to confront the past and re-enter the dating game--aided initially by her cokehead housemate Darla. Now five years later and going steady with Sophie, he decides to write "a tale of my experience of being on television". In an era when nobodies are celebrities and every celebrity is getting in touch with their inner nobody, Gerald could be exhibit A. His book, he says, will not be the "usual story": there are "no serious problems with drink or drugs". Celebs, he argues, "fail to realise that the bits they think we're interested in (the debauchery) are, in fact, often the least compelling". What he's going to tell us about is whether he loved his co-star Perdita (yes); what he was thinking about when he was on screen (will anyone fancy me?) and whether any of those relationships were real (some were, some weren't). His narrative, which shuffles dextrously between his teens and his emotionally troubled 20s with a handful of interjections from the present day, does just that. The minutiae of his parents' collapsing marriage and of auditions, rivalry among the cast and the development of the show itself at the hands of dramaturge Nicholas Pennington (a kind-of Alan Clarke Svengali figure) are recounted in what can feel dangerously close to real time. Thorne, a convincing advocate and practitioner of less-is-more prose, occasionally steers a thin line between simplicity and all out dullness but his precision with character and an impish understanding of familial relationships, modern dating mores and 80s pop culture keep this novel fizzing. --Travis ElboroughRead More