I don’t even know where to begin, I just finished reading A Star Is Born I know there’s a couple of remakes the only two that I have seen is recently with Lady GaGa and Bradley Cooper. The first one I have see is Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. This book is based on that movie, oh my so many emotions the end had me in tears. A 5 star read for me
A star is born tells the story of John Norman and Esther Hoffman. John Norman was a rock and roll star when he met her. Esther Hoffman was a simple artist, performing in small local pubs when she met him.
He quickly saw potential in the plain, upcoming artist. More than that, he saw beauty and honesty. He decided to go for both attractions and the result, was that he was able to produce a star in the music industry.
Just saw the 2018 Gaga edition of this film. The movie is fine. I thought really rather well done. But that's neither here nor there.
Let me suggest this thought. The ending is strictly identical with that of Thelma & Louise. Perhaps we might consider condemning films whose final solution is suicide. Perhaps we should demand our imaginative literature and entertainment offer us some other way out from under patriarchy than offing ourselves.
Corny. Maybe not my type of genre. This was too much and probably the last few pages (10 or so) were interesting, sad, and compelling. I would've changed the way John Norman died, this would've given a darker and sadder tone to the story (I mean it in a good way).
I liked the plot. A famous rockstar is suffering from alcoholism and in a stupor discovers a struggling artist -falling in love with her talent. He provides her with a big break, sending her to the ultimate fame just as his addictions begin to derail his career. The pair marry, but despite their love things begin to collapse. Perhaps the most interesting character is John Norman, and I wished the author would've give more depth to his mental afflictions. I found Esther's character slightly annoying and childish, needy and for moments immature.
Sometimes reading a movie tie-in novel is interesting because the narrative can fill in a lot of background, especially where character development and emotions go.
This one just didn't work for me. John Norman Howard was always referred to as John Norman (even in the movie) and my true-crime loaded brain kept supplying the last name of Collins because John Norman Collins was a serial killer who targeted co-eds in Michigan back in the late 1960s.
And while the novel stayed pretty true to the movie, it just felt flat. There wasn't a lot of emotional insight into John Norman or Esther, they remained one dimensional for me.
Not for me. The characters were just unrealistic and poorly developed to me. Especially the climax of the book at the end. I didn’t want them together, I didn’t root for them. It’s like I had no grasp of their true characters or traits and if that’s the point- that they were all over the place and inconsistent, I just didn’t enjoy it. The romance parts were tacky and soap opera like to me. It just wasn’t right for me