Review of The Lonely Planet Boy (Paperback)

This book begins as a slight little story about one young man's obsession with pop and rock.It's very British - it takes place in London, after all- and makes many references to early '80s musical artists that the modernreader might never have even heard of.Plus, the characters don't seem tohave much going on other than their musical preferences.But despite that,The Lonely Planet Boy is a pretty entertaining read.Plus, it's veryshort.Kip Wilson, a shy English youth, discovers rock chanteuse Mina (acombination of the VU's Nico and the lead singer from Missing Persons),writes a glowing review of her for the rock magazine that barely employshim, and soon enough both his writing career and Mina's rock career takeoff.Kip soon becomes nothing more than a slavish fanboy, obsessed withMina, even flying to the US out of his own wallet to cover her tour.It ishere in America that the first of the book's two shocking incidents takesplace; the way Mina shows Kip what she thinks of him was pretty jolting. The end comes rather quickly after this, and the second devastating acttakes place in the last pages of the book.These two incidents alonechange the entire tone of the novel, which started off as an almostnostalgic look at early '80s pop and music journalism, but ends as a grimreflection on the strange relationship between artist and fan, and how somefans can become slightly obsessed, even fanatical.It isn't the feel-goodbook of the year, that's for sure, but I got a few chuckles out of it.Ofcourse, I got a bunch of laughs out of Moby-Dick, too, so that's notsurprising.

Product Description
Kip, a lonely provincial boy, comes to London to enlist as a hack reviewer for a pop magazine and falls in love with Mina, a torch-singing vamp. When Mina's career takes off, Kip finds himself caught up in the general excitement, yet there is a mental and spiritual price to pay.

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