I found this book on the shelf at the public library when I was not really looking for anything in particular. I picked it up because I started singing along with the title. Then I realized the title actually was the Partridge Family song, and I was probably meant to sing along with it.
The story is written in two parts. The first is the story of Petra, a 13-year-old girl in South Wales back in 1973 when David Cassidy ruled the pop world. Petra and her friend Sharon set out to win a trip to meet David Cassidy in California. The second part of the book is what happens 30 years later when Petra claims her prize from the magazine and she and Sharon head to Las Vegas to see David's show there.
Allison Pearson is brilliant at observing. When she writes about the angst of being a teenage girl, it's not with cliches or broad keystrokes. It's by observing the minutest of details, of thoughts and actions that happen in a millisecond and have consequences that continue to reverberate throughout people's lives. Sometimes those tiny details make you cringe with the pain of her character.
Pearson's attention to detail is so acute that she gets every detail right, down to the David Cassidy Love Kit fans could order from 16 Magazine for $2. You don't have to have been a David Cassidy fan to connect with Petra, though. As Paul Simon once sang, "every generation throws a hero up the pop charts". Justin Bieber or David Cassidy, the game remains the same, as do the emotions.
The story is about more than being a fan, of course, it's about friendship and love and missed opportunities and new opportunities. It's also about looking forward and looking back and becoming a better person for it.
I enjoyed this book so much I'm going to find her earlier book, I Don't Know How She Does It, and hope the greatness of this book wasn't a one off.
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