Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
scottish history, May 18 2004
the story of maria tambini, the teenage pop star who rises to fame and then nearly dies of anorexia nervosa, is the main plot device, yet it is not the high point. the strength of the book is the depiction of maria's family, italian immigrants in scotland whose lives were traumatized by world war II, when italians in scotland were attacked for their link to the nazis. the family's fish and chip shop is trashed and maria's grandmother, lucia, is taken to a refugee camp. she is reunited with her daughter, sofia, and tries to escape on a ship, but the ship is bombed and she loses her daughter. the loss cripples her for the rest of her life and o'hagan makes the point in a fascinating way, through a suitcase with items from sofia's life that is returned to lucia 30 years later. o'hagan actually lists the items at the end of the chapter on the saga, which is a beautifully sad moment, one of a few in this fantastic book that doesn't let the main story steal the show. it's amazing how all the reviews you read focus only on maria's saga. how can they have missed the best parts of the book?
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A beguiling and ambitious work on the culture of celebrity., Sep 23 2003
There's a lot to admire in this beguiling and heartfelt story. O'Hagan deftly whisks us away to the picturesque island of Bute and the beautiful sounding town of Rothesay. Growing up in Australia, and being familiar with British television or "telly" as the British like to call it, there was much in this novel that was familiar to me and so much of it bought back memories: the Basil Brush Show, sausage rolls, LWT, and Opportunity Knocks etc. O'Hagan really brings back to life the 70's TV variety shows and the people who starred on them. And there's no doubt that his research of the period is absolutely meticulous.Personality is so much more than an account of one young girl's rise to fame and fortune as a "Cilla Black" style variety singer. The Italian immigrant experience - which I must confess I knew nothing about - the terrible disease of bulimia and anorexia nervosa, the meaning of family ties, and the culture of celebrity in Britain are all issues that O'Hagan tackles in this work with differing success. The many multiple story lines and secondary character confessions do, at times, clutter and stifle the central chronicle of Maria's rise to stardom and her battle with eating disorders. However, the secondary characters are still beautifully developed: Rosa, Maria's mother, spends her days running the family "fish and chip" ship in Rothesay, supportive of her daughter, but also regretful of what "might have been"; Lucia, the Italian immigrant grandmother who holds terrible family secrets from World War 2; Mrs. Gaskell the work obsessed entertainment agent who drives Maria to the brink of no return, and Michael, Maria's childhood friend who falls in love with Maria and comes to her rescue later in the novel. There are also many other characters equally rich in detail. O'Hagan is also a wonderfully descriptive writer and he experiments with different styles throughout the novel - he uses newspaper reports, the epistolary form, and various chapter-like monologues to reflect the characters' inner-most thoughts, and to help tell us the story of Maria, her struggles, and her journey to stardom. This works well in some sections and not in others, and sometimes the novel becomes cluttered with too many subplots. There's also a rather unnecessary twist involving a stalker in part three, which seems hurried and tacked on, and at times, particularly in part three, the story meanders too far from the central plot. But this novel is still worth reading and the fact that the author can authentically transport you to Great Britain in the 1970's and present an era in such vivid detail shows tremendous talent and literary creativity. Anyone who grew up watching 70's British variety shows and has an appreciation for them will just love this book! Michael.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning, Aug 14 2003
In a run-down resort town on a Scottish island, a family pins its hopes on the youngest daughter, Maria, who is working on her singing and her looks. As an early teen, she is whisked off to London, where she wins a televised talent contest. Three years later, she is a famous pop singer. By twenty, she is anorexic, looney, and is being stalked.The characters in Personality are astonishingly complex & well described, the plot is not particularly compelling. Still a fine effort by Mr. O'Hagan, and well recommended!
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