(Chatto & Windus, $38.99)
Allison Pearson’s first novel *I Don’t Know **How She Does It *was an international blockbuster, selling more than three million copies. Women around the world loved Kate Redding, her fictional “sandwich woman”, who was increasingly torn apart by the clashing demands of work and family.
Actually, I wasn’t a fan.
I only have a Ginger and a dog myself, so I found reading about the torture of having to juggle children as well as everything else too stressful. Lord knows how any of you do it! I collapse in a heap if I have to cook a meal and take the dog to the vet.
Allison’s new book might not tap into quite so rich a vein but it did strike gold with me this time around – solid 1970s gold. Petra is an awkward Welsh teenager, her only reason for living her deep and undying love of David Cassidy, soulful crooner and star of the American TV show The Partridge Family.
Personally, I was a Donny osmond fan, but I could certainly belt out an only slightly fluffed version of Cherish if I had to. In fact, I distinctly remember sitting alone in the rumpus room with Solid Gold Hits Volume 2 on the record player, having visions of a feathery-haired man in high-waisted flares saving me from my brothers and sisters.
Indeed, anyone who was a teenager in that era will identify with Petra’s desperate fantasies about being snatched away from hideous reality by a drop-dead gorgeous mega-star.
But it’s when Petra revisits her hysterical fandom – and the object of her earlier desires – as an adult that I felt the story really came alive. Just like the much-loved Marian Keyes, this funny, clever writer has recently confessed to a debilitating struggle with depression. It’s hard enough to write books when you’re feeling on top of the world – I know that for a fact. But when you have two children, a sick parent, a raft of crushing deadlines and an overwhelming urge to not wake up in the morning? I don’t know how she does it.
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