Starcrossed

by A.A. Gill

Like Byron, John Dart, poet and bookshop assistant, wakes up one morning and finds himself, if not quite famous, then the next best thing: in bed with someone famous. Lee Montana, singer, film star and the most famous woman in the world, wakes up one morning and finds she's had carnal knowledge of a shop assistant - which doesn't have quite the same exclamatory ring to it. Antigone doesn't wake up at all. She is a 2,000-year-old dead Greek girl with a truculent disposition and a bad dose of destiny. Tentatively, John and Lee embark on a sort of affair with three unequal partners: the two of them and Antigone's bitter shadow.

Is fame the beauty parlour of the dead? Can the gods fall in love? Should a poet fuck with his muse? In his dazzling new novel A.A. Gill flirts with capricious destiny and hitchhikes on the boulevard of fate.

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2012

About the author

Adrian Anthony Gill was an English journalist. He was the author of 9 books, including The Angry Island. He was the TV and restaurant critic and a regular features writer for The Sunday Times, a columnist for Esquire, and a contributor to Vanity Fair. He lived in London.

Reviews

[Saahil Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a fiction work which depicts the story of John who works in a book store as an assistant and his love / sex life with the star of Hollywood Lee Montana. However when she gets casted as a lead character Antigone (a 2000 year old play about the same), things gets rough between them.

[Ian O'Donnell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't believe the spiel on the front cover " funny" not, I did have a little snigger about one third into the book "lest politically correct" maybe. However full of sex scenes. This is It's only saving quality. Very disappointing.

[Jayne Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very clever book hiding under an apparently trashy exterior with its bright in-your-face colours, trumpeting the fact that it won the Bad Sex Award. To be honest my main reason for picking it off the shelf was to see how bad it has to be to win that particular gong. Telling the story of an ordinary bloke who works in a bookshop in London and writes a bit of poetry in his spare time, who somehow gets into a relationship with an internationally famous singer/film star, it has a lot to say about the cult of celebrity which if anything has intensified since this book was written. A lot of books have invented celebrities in them, but few have explained quite as well as this one why celebs behave as they do, or or contrasted quite as well the difference between their lifestyles and that of the ordinary joe.

I loved the witty descriptions (eg the estate agent with a ‘nose like a Swiss Army knife bottle opener’ who looked as if she’d been’ made out of the bits of chicken that nobody else wanted to eat’, and the Shakespeare production whose performers ‘listened with their pelvises’), I was howling with laughter in places it was so funny. Yet there was something very serious about it too, it’s not just a holiday read though it would make your holiday a lot of fun. And how bad is the sex? Pretty bad, though it’s definitely the sex that’s bad and not the writing.

[Paul Perrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites of all times. Subtle philosophical observations for the discerning.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In turn banal and poignant, shallow and deep, outrageously funny and heartrendingly sad. Fantastically written and hugely enjoyable. Highly recommended.