Personality

The New Yorker

In a decayed resort town on the Isle of Bute in the nineteen-seventies, an Italo-Scottish family pins its hopes on the youngest member, Maria, who is working on her singing and her hair. At thirteen, she is whisked off to London, where she wins a talent contest on television. By sixteen, she is a famous pop singer. By twenty, she is anorexic and half-mad. (Soon she also has a homicidal admirer stalking her.) The analysis of her thoughts, a miasma of fear and narcissism, is the core of the novel, but most of the other characters, too, are lonely and obsessed, and are wandering through a world of junk: candy wrappers, catchphrases, TV shows. At the same time, the book is so bustling and rich -- we get every old lady and barfly on the island, with their letters, diaries, secrets -- that the darkness seems lit from end to end.

The New York Times

O'Hagan's style is enjoyably playful, mixing a variety of different forms -- newspaper articles, interviews, song lyrics, diary entries. Cameos are scattered throughout, including Princess Diana and Nancy Reagan, and the character of Maria, too, is based on an actual figure, the singer Lena Zavaroni. The frequent shifts in tone sometimes give Personality more the feel of a screenplay than a novel: some of the set pieces, especially a subplot involving a stalker, might have dropped in from another genre. But the novel's episodic quality usefully heightens the many juxtapositions: actual and fictional characters, real and unreal, past and present. — Ruth Franklin

The Washington Post

Will Maria succumb to her anorexia, or will Michael help her save herself? It's a soap-opera question, but Andrew O'Hagan doesn't handle it in a soap-opera way. Instead he has written a thoughtful inquiry not merely into the obvious question -- "the perils of being famous too young" -- but also into the opportunities and burdens that great talent entails. "Believe me," the emcee of the TV show says, "you don't invent talent. Talent invents you. It changes your mind and brings you up short." Maria Tambini's story is an object lesson in just that. — Jonathan Yardley

Publishers Weekly

O'Hagan chronicles the rise and fall of a troubled pop singer in his poignant second novel "inspired to some extent by the lives of several dead performers." Young Maria Tambini has a powerful set of pipes: on Scotland's Isle of Bute, where her grandparents immigrated to escape Mussolini, the shy, winsome girl wows residents and wins numerous local talent contests. At 13, she triumphs on TV and moves to London. But as her career hits the fast track, Tambini begins to lose touch with her family and control of her life. Successful albums and appearances with the likes of Dean Martin, Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett abound ("You are such a talented little person I want to kill you," Cavett says), but Tambini develops a laxative habit and begins both starving herself and vomiting. Soon, hospital visits become a regular part of her routine. O'Hagan introduces a romantic subplot when Maria meets a kind former classmate, Michael, who helps nurse her through her struggles, and the climax features a well-crafted confrontation with a deranged fan who continues to stalk Maria even after her career has peaked. Many of the rags-to-riches music scenes are familiar, but O'Hagan portrays Maria's food problems with grace and compassion (diet soda feels "like a passing shower of rain inside, and harmless, under control, the taste of zero"). The additional story line about the struggles of Maria's mother, Rosa, is more hit-or-miss. This novel is a solid addition to O'Hagan's body of work, but the absence of a truly compelling plot makes it a bit of a disappointment after the critical acclaim for Our Fathers, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. (Aug.) Forecast: O'Hagan, who was named one of Granta's best young British novelists in January, is gradually becoming better known in the U.S. He is said to be working on a satire of what's wrong with America, which is a sure bet for attention on these shores. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

The New York Times Book Review

"[O''Hagan''s] books, the products of a patient intelligence, reveal a preoccupation with the enigma that underlies media frenzy: why do some things seem to last forever while others fade away?

— Ruth Franklin

Library Journal

Born into a family of Italian immigrants living on Bute, an island off the coast of Scotland, 13-year-old Maria Tambini has an amazing singing voice. After she triumphs at a talent show in London, she quickly attains fame singing the Palladium and eventually Las Vegas. But Maria has more than fame to contend with: she never knew her father, her mother is preoccupied with running the family's chip shop, and her boyfriend, Giovanni, has a roving eye. In addition, Uncle Alfredo and Grandma Lucca have a few secrets of their own revolving around the detention of Italians at the beginning of World War II. O'Hagan (Our Fathers) traces the rise and fall of this young star, showing how her meteoric career robbed her of her adolescence. While the story is interesting, it never rises to the heights Maria herself attains, and the mystery of Grandma Lucca's past seems unconnected to the main plot. An optional purchase. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/03.]-Josh Cohen, Mid-Hudson Lib. Syst., Poughkeepsie, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The rise and near fall of a young Italian-Scottish singing sensation-a fictional composite of Shirley Temple, Liza Minelli, and Brittany Spears, among others. Maria Tambini grows up on the isolated Scottish Island of Bute, raised by her unmarried mother. In 1979, Maria is a typical 12-year-old who loves candy and is devoted to her best friend Kalpana, daughter of the local Indian doctor. But Maria's incredible singing voice sets her apart. After her uncle Alfredo arranges for a talent scout to hear her sing, Maria is off to London to live with her new manager and appear as an undefeatable contestant on Opportunity Knocks, hosted by an aging song-and-dance man who recognizes Maria's talent and warns her about its power. It's hard to decide just how much even Maria herself hungers for celebrity once her ambitious manager divides her from her family and sets up an exhausting appearance schedule. While Maria is the central subject, for much of the story she remains a mystery seen primarily through the eyes of the various people in her life. Many of these come more vibrantly to life than Maria herself, in particular her mother and grandmother, whose tortured histories and failures shadow Maria. Scottish journalist and novelist O'Hagan (Our Fathers, 1999, etc.) strongly suggests that celebrity robs the individual of personality-as he shows in the sad, dwindling correspondence between Maria and Kalpana as Kalpana grows into an educated, well-rounded young woman and Maria's life narrows the more famous she becomes. She makes no friends but is always ready to please her elders and her public. Gradually, the desire to please turns Maria into an anorexic/bulimic who's hospitalized periodically forexhaustion. Stalked by a fan who, a bit heavy-handedly, represents Maria's public, she eventually finds happiness with a man who knew and cared for her as a boy on Bute before she was a star. Haunting and rewarding as an intimate family chronicle and journalistic take on the entertainment industry, based, we're told, "on the life story of a famous singer."

Elle

"O'Hagan is a writer of almost shocking tenderness."

Esquire

"... elegaic, sepia-toned, in Scottish cadence, adorned with memories of Italian tenors and eras gone by."

he New York Times Book Review - Ruth Franklin

"[O'Hagan's] books, the products of a patient intelligence, reveal a preoccupation with the enigma that underlies media frenzy: why do some things seem to last forever while others fade away?"

The New Yorker

"The book is so bustling and rich...that the darkness seems lit from end to end."

People

"Personality lays bare the darker side of fame with astonishing empathy...Bottom Line: Shining look at stardom."