Personality

by Andrew O'Hagan | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0571217753 Global Overview for this book
Registered by bacicoline of Paris, Ile-de-France France on 12/18/2004
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This book is in a Controlled Release! This book is in a Controlled Release!
7 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by bacicoline from Paris, Ile-de-France France on Saturday, December 18, 2004
A very interesting book both because the story is good and because of the writing. The author tells this story in an unusual way : some chapters are letters, others are from diaries and so on... And the point of view differs because several characters are telling the story.

I really enjoyed readin this book and even learned some Scottish words !

Journal Entry 2 by bacicoline from Paris, Ile-de-France France on Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Ring Ring !

- abstraite (France)
- goatgrrl (Canada)
- q-cow (US)
- Katybean (UK)
- Redhouse (UK)
- Icila (France)
- kanapoutz (France)
- brujula (France)

I hope you'll enjoy this book !
It's my first book which is going to travel over the Atlantic Ocean...
When am I going to do the same ???

please, feel free to take the time you need to read it !

Journal Entry 3 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Personality arrived safely in yesterday's mail, and I plan to start it later today or tomorrow. Thanks very much, bacicoline and abstraite, for making this book available and sending it along. I'll have it back in the mail within 1 - 2 weeks. Best wishes from New Westminster, British Columbia! (Left: author Andrew O'Hagan.)

Journal Entry 4 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Wednesday, August 17, 2005
I can so clearly remember reading an article in the trashy pre-teen magazine Tiger Beat about Scottish pop star Lena Zavaroni (left). It would have been around 1977, both Zavaroni and I would have been thirteen years old, and she had just released her hit single "Ma, He's Making Eyes at Me". Apart from the fact of our shared ages, I'm not sure why she made such an impression on me (I never even heard her sing!), but I've never forgotten that little article. So I was surprised and interested to learn that Personality is loosely based on Zavaroni's life story. And then I was really sorry to read about what happened to her.

Personality begins in 1977 when Maria Tambini (Zavaroni), age 13, is still living with her Scottish-Italian mother and grandmother above a chip shop on the Isle of Bute. The book chronicles her rise to fame (if of a somewhat watered-down variety), propelled by a run of successful appearances on Hughie Green's TV show Opportunity Knocks. The story is written from the point of view of a large number of characters in Maria's ambit, including her Italian grandmother Lucia, her crazy mother Rosa, her school chum Kalpana and her philandering stepfather Giovanni. An interesting back-story involves Lucia's first -- and long deceased -- daughter, Sofia. (A weird aside: the sinking of the Arandora Star off the coast of the Isle of Man features in another novel I read this year, David Baddiel's The Secret Purposes, published within a year of Personality.)

This was not the most intellectually demanding -- nor the most gratifying -- book I've read this year, but O'Hagan does a harrowingly good job of getting inside the head of Tambini/Zavaroni, and he brought back memories of the 1970s in a way only another child of that decade could do (SRA reading cards and the Girl's World head!).

Personality won the 2003 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. You can read the Guardian's review of Personality here. You can also view Lena Zavaroni's obituary on the BBC website here.

Journal Entry 5 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Friday, August 19, 2005
I finished this book this afternoon, and have emailed q-cow for his/her address. I'll post one more time once the book is in the mail. Thanks again, bacicoline - I'm grateful for having had the opportunity to read Personality.

Journal Entry 6 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Thursday, August 25, 2005
I PMd q-cow for an address a week ago, and haven't heard from him/her as yet. I'll PM again today, and if I haven't heard anything within another few days I'll move on to katybean. Please let me know, bacicoline, if there's some other way you'd like me to proceed. Thanks!

Journal Entry 7 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Sunday, August 28, 2005
I still haven't heard from q-cow, so I've moved along the list to katybean, who I PMd this evening. Will journal once more once the book has gone out in the mail.

Edited on Sept. 1/05 to add: I mailed Personality to katybean in Aylesbury, England this afternoon. I sent the book airmail, so it shouldn't take longer than a week to reach her.

Journal Entry 8 by katybean from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire United Kingdom on Monday, September 5, 2005
Book arrived safely this morning - many thanks goatgrrl!!

I have a couple of ring books in my possession, but I'm a quick reader!!

Will update again when I have finished!

Journal Entry 9 by katybean from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire United Kingdom on Monday, September 5, 2005
Whooops!! Have just found my Canadian present!! Many thanks goatgrrl!!



Journal Entry 10 by katybean from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, September 28, 2005
I finished reading this book on a cruise, so I guess that makes it even more travelled!!!!!

I really enjoyed the book, although I would have liked to have had a bit more of an ending - I really love neat and tidy endings!!

I also found the way the story was told, via different characters eyes and correspondence to be a really good idea as you could see the full picture!

I only got back from the cruise late last night, but I have redhouse's address and will get it off to her over the next couple of days.

Thanks very much for sharing, and sorry if I have held this up in any way!

Katybean

the ship

Journal Entry 11 by lellie from Trimley St Mary, Suffolk United Kingdom on Friday, September 30, 2005
Arrived this morning. Many thanks. I've almost finished my current book and this one is now on the top of the tobereads.

Journal Entry 12 by lellie from Trimley St Mary, Suffolk United Kingdom on Tuesday, October 11, 2005
I've just finished this. Thanks so much to bacicoline for starting this and giving me the opportunity to read it.
I agree with goatgrrl that it perhaps wasn't intellectually demanding, but I found it both hugely enjoyable and extremely harrowing, yes he does get into Maria's head doesn't he?
The ending was perhaps a bit vague, but life doesn't always tie itself up neatly. I sometimes feel it's better to have the opportunity to use your own imagination.
Once again thanks everyone.
I'm PMing icila now and hope to have this on its way by the weekend.

Journal Entry 13 by wingIcilawing from Nantes, Pays de la Loire France on Thursday, October 20, 2005
I got the book yesterday. Thanks a lot. Having a big TBR pile I do my best to read it as soon as possible.

Journal Entry 14 by wingIcilawing from Nantes, Pays de la Loire France on Tuesday, December 13, 2005
I was repelled by the cover which don't deserve the book.
When I dove into the book I kept the reading because it's a very interesting one, about the life on the small island in Scotland, the fate ot this baby-star and the consequence of a too severe control of the life. Thanks a lot bacicoline for sharing this bbok.

I send it to our dear Kanapoutz ! :)

Journal Entry 15 by KanaPoutz from Cannes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur France on Monday, December 19, 2005
Merci Icila!!

Journal Entry 16 by KanaPoutz from Cannes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur France on Thursday, August 31, 2006
Sorry for having kept this book for so long!

I've finally read it, I struggled through the first half, but then I really got into the destiny of poor Maria. I like the ending, I can only imagine that as she gets away she can get better...

Thank you goatgrrl for the info on Lena Zavaroni. I had never heard about her, it is interesting to know that this book is based on her (tragic) story.

Thanks baci for the book, I'll send it to Brujula (right after me on this bookring, as usual!) in the next few days.

Journal Entry 17 by Brujula from Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais France on Sunday, September 17, 2006
Received today, along with many sweets! Thank you Kanapoutz!
(dis, ils sont pas français, ces bonbons, ils viennent d'où?)

Journal Entry 18 by KanaPoutz from Cannes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur France on Monday, September 18, 2006
Baci connaît bien les Golia, ils viennent d'Italie :-)

Journal Entry 19 by Brujula from Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais France on Thursday, April 19, 2007
I finally got to reading this book...
It's a sad story, but it's so well told, that you just can't stop reading.
This little girl who seems born to be a star, and who is destroyed by it, and also the story of past generations that is still so present (Lucia, the grand-mother, Rosa, the mother..., what happened to italian immigrants in Scotland during the war....)

An interesting and touching book. Thank you for sharing, bacicoline!


Journal Entry 20 by Brujula at Strasbourg, Alsace France on Thursday, September 4, 2008

Released 16 yrs ago (12/1/2007 UTC) at Strasbourg, Alsace France

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given back to bacicoline at la place Kleber

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