Book Review: Love, Stargirl
Sep. 9th, 2011 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI love, love, LOVE Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl - when I first read it, especially, I wanted desperately to be just like Stargirl, fearless and unique and amazing.
So I was pretty excited when the sequel, Love, Stargirl, came out - except that I got it from the library, and couldn't finish it.
I picked it up at the library again this week, and did finish it this time, but I can't say I made the wrong choice when I passed on it a few years back. It lacks the ferocious narrative drive and joy of the original; the characters never flair into the same burning life.
Moreover, it continues the romance from Stargirl. This might seem like a reasonable choice, except that Stargirl's ex, Leo, never actually appears in the book except in conversations that Stargirl imagines having with him. He's halfway across the country. The romance mainly consists of Stargirl pining.
Stargirl. The fabulous Stargirl! Pining. For Leo Borlock, who is decent enough but totally unworthy of being pined after, especially by Stargirl. He's unworthy of Stargirl even when they're in the same state, for goodness' sake!
But even this is not the main problem. No, the main problem is the fact that Stargirl is the first person narrator. In the first book, Stargirl is larger than life, almost a force of nature, like a kind-hearted teenage Captain Jack Sparrow. Making the reader privy to her inner doubts inevitably diminishes her.
Just think what would happen if The Great Gatsby, say, were written from Gatsby's point of view. Through Nick Carraway's eyes, Gatsby possesses a tragic grandeur; but if we had to listen to the vicissitudes of his petty obsession with the girl who got away, the sordid details of his money-making schemes, all the glamour would wear off. And that would be a crying shame.
***
A side note. Stargirl would make an amazing movie - the dramatic desert setting, Stargirl's zany clothes, the giant conga line dancing into the night at the end - and now would be the exact right time to make it, to catch the 'be yourself!' zeitgeist gushing around. Maybe one of the Fanning sisters could play Stargirl? They're both incredibly talented. It would be so amazing!
So I was pretty excited when the sequel, Love, Stargirl, came out - except that I got it from the library, and couldn't finish it.
I picked it up at the library again this week, and did finish it this time, but I can't say I made the wrong choice when I passed on it a few years back. It lacks the ferocious narrative drive and joy of the original; the characters never flair into the same burning life.
Moreover, it continues the romance from Stargirl. This might seem like a reasonable choice, except that Stargirl's ex, Leo, never actually appears in the book except in conversations that Stargirl imagines having with him. He's halfway across the country. The romance mainly consists of Stargirl pining.
Stargirl. The fabulous Stargirl! Pining. For Leo Borlock, who is decent enough but totally unworthy of being pined after, especially by Stargirl. He's unworthy of Stargirl even when they're in the same state, for goodness' sake!
But even this is not the main problem. No, the main problem is the fact that Stargirl is the first person narrator. In the first book, Stargirl is larger than life, almost a force of nature, like a kind-hearted teenage Captain Jack Sparrow. Making the reader privy to her inner doubts inevitably diminishes her.
Just think what would happen if The Great Gatsby, say, were written from Gatsby's point of view. Through Nick Carraway's eyes, Gatsby possesses a tragic grandeur; but if we had to listen to the vicissitudes of his petty obsession with the girl who got away, the sordid details of his money-making schemes, all the glamour would wear off. And that would be a crying shame.
***
A side note. Stargirl would make an amazing movie - the dramatic desert setting, Stargirl's zany clothes, the giant conga line dancing into the night at the end - and now would be the exact right time to make it, to catch the 'be yourself!' zeitgeist gushing around. Maybe one of the Fanning sisters could play Stargirl? They're both incredibly talented. It would be so amazing!
