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Laura Cassidy's Walk of Fame
Laura Cassidy is going all the way. Hollywood. Starry lights. The Walk of Fame. It’s her destiny. At least, that’s what her movie-obsessed father used to tell her. That was always the plan.
Sure, it’s been a bit slow-going, but the stars have finally aligned. The long-awaited new theatre is about to open, and their first production calls for a particularly fiery female lead. This part has Laura’s name on it.
There’s her meddlesome older sister to get past – freshly returned from saving the world. Her occasional lover and stand-in leading man seems to think it’s all a waste of time. And probably best not to mention the audition to her mother, especially after what happened last time . . . Laura just has to stay one step ahead of them all.
Channelling the era of Hollywood’s silver screen and told in a voice that blends devil humour, quiet mayhem, and a singled-minded optimism that might just lead to disaster, Laura Cassidy’s Walk of Fame tells the story of a troubled soul desperate to find her place in life.
Sure, it’s been a bit slow-going, but the stars have finally aligned. The long-awaited new theatre is about to open, and their first production calls for a particularly fiery female lead. This part has Laura’s name on it.
There’s her meddlesome older sister to get past – freshly returned from saving the world. Her occasional lover and stand-in leading man seems to think it’s all a waste of time. And probably best not to mention the audition to her mother, especially after what happened last time . . . Laura just has to stay one step ahead of them all.
Channelling the era of Hollywood’s silver screen and told in a voice that blends devil humour, quiet mayhem, and a singled-minded optimism that might just lead to disaster, Laura Cassidy’s Walk of Fame tells the story of a troubled soul desperate to find her place in life.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published March 5, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 11, 2020
Laura’s movie-obsessed father always told her that she was destined for fame. And Laura will do whatever is necessary to see his, and her own, dream realised.
I loved this book. A journey of grief, desperation and hope. It is funny, poignant and packed with familial tension, drama and yearning. You’ll follow Laura’s walk of fame through the streets of Galway long after you’ve turned the last page.
My thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan / Picador for the opportunity to read this novel. Publication date is March 5th, 2020.
I loved this book. A journey of grief, desperation and hope. It is funny, poignant and packed with familial tension, drama and yearning. You’ll follow Laura’s walk of fame through the streets of Galway long after you’ve turned the last page.
My thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan / Picador for the opportunity to read this novel. Publication date is March 5th, 2020.
September 1, 2021
Read in a few days, great memory's of Galway with a story that reminds us all that the mind is a magnificant, artistic, imaginative and most of all fragile tool, especially when we lose a loved one.
March 22, 2022
Depressingly sad.
March 30, 2020
I devoured in three straight readings! Laura is a wholly memorable, unique creation from the sparkling pen of Alan McMonagle. Although delusional and disordered, she is highly relatable and has you rooting for her from the off. As an actress and writer myself, I know only too well the lure of ‘somebodyism’ and ‘someday’ and ‘somewhere over the rainbow’!! The gap between where Laura is and where she wants to be, is a place for dreaming, desperation, and sometimes, as in Laura’s case, devastation. I love the tone of devilish humour that channels the silver screen era and blends nostalgia with modern aching ambition that says unless you're a star, you're a nobody. My heart was broken for Laura, yet I felt hope, that her facility for fantasy, which is no doubt delusional, is also for her, a haven of starry optimism, a world where dreams remain in tact in spite of reality adamantly saying otherwise. Heartbreaking, warm, funny, relevant and insightful.
April 6, 2020
Be warned! Laura Cassidy is dangerous. Dangerous as any of the femmes fatales – Gloria Swanson, Lana Turner, Veronica Lake – whose posters line her bedroom wall. And she’ll seduce you, this sassy, light-fingered terror of the tourists as she takes you on a highly idiosyncratic walking-tour of Galway. But just as in the fast-flowing Corrib she daily crosses, there are darker currents at work, and they’ll sweep you along with impeccable timing, with all the inevitability of Greek drama, of a Tennessee Williams tragedy or a novel by James M Cain. Because she’s entirely sui generis, Laura Cassidy. She may not make the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but she effortlessly takes her place amidst the troubled portrait gallery of misfits dreamed up by Mike McCormack, Sara Baume, Colin Barrett, Eimear McBride, Kevin Barry, Mary Costello et al. So fasten your seatbelts, you’re in for a bumpy ride!
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March 29, 2022For those seeking feel good book about dreams and struggling to make them come true, will find LAURA CASSIDY’S WALK OF FAME to be a worthy read. This is Alan McConagle’s second book, and it is filled with interesting characters, especially Laura Cassidy.
Laura dreams of being part of the glitz and glamour of the silver screen. She has been obsessed with movies, and the classic film stars who made the earlier years of Hollywood so spectacular. Barbara Stanwyck, Veronica Lake, Lana Turner, and Gene Tierney are among the stars who she wishes to emulate, becoming as large as life or even larger than they were. She eats, sleeps and dreams this life and world.
Her father helped foster that love of the silver screen, by praising her constantly and letting her know she could do anything she wanted and excel at it as well. But when she was not even a teenager, her father drowned and that destroyed part of her world. She had never totally recovered, her dreams floundering thanks to the loss of her father. A decade or so later she still has not even come close to making her plans of stardom even flicker.
Life does overwhelm her, sending to her a breakdown, and living with her mother for the moment. But hope springs eternal when a production of A Streetcar Named Desire comes to a new theatre near her, and she knows without a doubt she is destined for the lead of the play. Her father had a part in that same play many years previously, making her think this was destiny it had returned to her area. This is overshadowed by the return of her sister Jennifer, who is an aid-worker and has been travelling around the world. Her mother gives more attention to Jennifer, making Laura once again feel relegated to being a non-entity, again wishing her father was there to give her the encouragement now so sadly lacking.
She is insecure, almost self-defeating, wanting something and wondering if she was meant to get it. She wants it so badly though, and knows in her heart acting is her destiny, but her immaturity and persistent thoughts derail that process. Laura narrates the story of her life, and we find a most interesting conclusion where things go sideways, and maybe that walk of fame could become a walk of shame. It still makes one ponder the lengths people go to try and achieve sometimes impossible and improbable dreams. Laura takes fame to dangerous extremes.
Laura dreams of being part of the glitz and glamour of the silver screen. She has been obsessed with movies, and the classic film stars who made the earlier years of Hollywood so spectacular. Barbara Stanwyck, Veronica Lake, Lana Turner, and Gene Tierney are among the stars who she wishes to emulate, becoming as large as life or even larger than they were. She eats, sleeps and dreams this life and world.
Her father helped foster that love of the silver screen, by praising her constantly and letting her know she could do anything she wanted and excel at it as well. But when she was not even a teenager, her father drowned and that destroyed part of her world. She had never totally recovered, her dreams floundering thanks to the loss of her father. A decade or so later she still has not even come close to making her plans of stardom even flicker.
Life does overwhelm her, sending to her a breakdown, and living with her mother for the moment. But hope springs eternal when a production of A Streetcar Named Desire comes to a new theatre near her, and she knows without a doubt she is destined for the lead of the play. Her father had a part in that same play many years previously, making her think this was destiny it had returned to her area. This is overshadowed by the return of her sister Jennifer, who is an aid-worker and has been travelling around the world. Her mother gives more attention to Jennifer, making Laura once again feel relegated to being a non-entity, again wishing her father was there to give her the encouragement now so sadly lacking.
She is insecure, almost self-defeating, wanting something and wondering if she was meant to get it. She wants it so badly though, and knows in her heart acting is her destiny, but her immaturity and persistent thoughts derail that process. Laura narrates the story of her life, and we find a most interesting conclusion where things go sideways, and maybe that walk of fame could become a walk of shame. It still makes one ponder the lengths people go to try and achieve sometimes impossible and improbable dreams. Laura takes fame to dangerous extremes.
May 13, 2020
Laura Cassidy’s Walk of Fame by Alan McMonagle
Alan Mc Monagle is a fantastic writer, he writes real characters with backstories that make you take them into your heart and root for them all the way to the end.
An absolutely brilliant book! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I would highly recommend it.
All the reminders of those Hollywood Greats brought to life in black and white
made Laura’s Cassidy’s dreams feel within an arm’s reach.
If they could do it … Why not I?
Seems more than reasonable to me.
Laura Cassidy’s bio reads quite similarly to theirs, actually.
I may sound a little defensive, but this is only because,
Laura Cassidy is perfect.
Imelda J Ebbing is the one who should be told to ebb off.
I loved it loved it loved it … but …
this book almost brought me to an Annie Wilkes moment
“Didn’t it Laura?” “Oh yes, Laura, Indeed, it most certainly did.”
Alan Mc Monagle is a fantastic writer, he writes real characters with backstories that make you take them into your heart and root for them all the way to the end.
An absolutely brilliant book! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I would highly recommend it.
All the reminders of those Hollywood Greats brought to life in black and white
made Laura’s Cassidy’s dreams feel within an arm’s reach.
If they could do it … Why not I?
Seems more than reasonable to me.
Laura Cassidy’s bio reads quite similarly to theirs, actually.
I may sound a little defensive, but this is only because,
Laura Cassidy is perfect.
Imelda J Ebbing is the one who should be told to ebb off.
I loved it loved it loved it … but …
this book almost brought me to an Annie Wilkes moment
“Didn’t it Laura?” “Oh yes, Laura, Indeed, it most certainly did.”
July 11, 2020
This novel follows up from McMonagle''s debut, Ithaca. Laura Cassidy, who is a tragi-comic character, so well drawn, and she's setting out to see her name in lights. Of course, what can go wrong, will. Her sister returns into her life, and it's a brilliant depiction of the Irish family and the complexities of all families. The novel is so tight, the prose is wonderful, including a homage to Joyce, which he pulls off well, it sings along, with Laura as unreliable narrator which McMonagle excels at. Galway, as a city and its characters is so well drawn, beautiful writing, and makes me want to go back there. The bohemian and arts scene with the local theatre, and the companay, Khaos, is brilliant from my memory of the scene in the nineties. Highly, highly recommend, loved it.
April 17, 2020
I loved Laura! She’s a complex and flawed character but very likeable. I wanted to see Laura succeed and I was rooting for her in spite of the many obstacles in her path, both physical and emotional. I was also impressed by the girly, flirtatious language used by the character, Imelda, Laura’s successful friend. I thought the male author captured the breathless excitement of an impressionable young woman very well. ‘I’ve attached a pic. And,yes, that is a Donatello Versace number I am squeezed into.’ I’m very much looking forward to Alan’s McMonagle’s third novel.
January 16, 2021
Laura Cassidy's walk of fame - Alan McMonagle 29 12 20 - good recommend
Set in Galloway where Laura pursues a hopelessly unrealistic dream of acting stardom inspired by the films she watched with her dad. Potential to be tragically sad but its not written that way; quite warm and funny and you want to know what happens the family.
Set in Galloway where Laura pursues a hopelessly unrealistic dream of acting stardom inspired by the films she watched with her dad. Potential to be tragically sad but its not written that way; quite warm and funny and you want to know what happens the family.
June 9, 2021
I was expecting this book to have a bit more to it so was a bit disappointed with it didn’t keep me wanting to read more.
It is about Laura who wants to be an actress but unfortunately she has a few issues, when she was in a play she froze and could not speak.
It kind of deals with her as we go through this book.
I did finish this book but I am sorry to say I wouldn’t read it again.
It is about Laura who wants to be an actress but unfortunately she has a few issues, when she was in a play she froze and could not speak.
It kind of deals with her as we go through this book.
I did finish this book but I am sorry to say I wouldn’t read it again.
February 6, 2020
I enjoyed this well written book. Laura is an interesting character and the story held my interest throughout.
Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
February 10, 2020
It's an engrossing, entertaining and well written story.
It made me laugh and I loved the characters and the setting.
The writer is an excellent storyteller and the plot kept me hooked.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
It made me laugh and I loved the characters and the setting.
The writer is an excellent storyteller and the plot kept me hooked.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
May 25, 2021
A gentle read, sad and funny in parts, perfect bit of escapism.
A nice change from all the thrillers I've been reading recently.
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest read.
A nice change from all the thrillers I've been reading recently.
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest read.
March 3, 2020
This is a beautiful, funny and sad story of a young woman who has decided to pursue her dream despite several obstacles. Well written and engaging throughout. Loved Laura! Recommended.
August 23, 2020
I found it sad more than funny.
August 25, 2020
Brilliant book love Laura
October 3, 2020
Loved this - one of those books where the characters intrigue and tease the reader. Laura Cassidy will break your heart and make you laugh
January 9, 2021
Sparkling top lines, heartbreaking below the surface. An easy read
January 4, 2023
It's not every day you find a novel like this one, so funny and tender and heartbreaking at the same time. Being able to talk about trauma and grief in such a witty yet delicate way is a rare virtue!
September 18, 2026
Adored this effervescent and affecting novel. Whatever about a star on the walk of fame, Laura Cassidy should have a street in Galway named after her.
April 20, 2020
I was a huge fan of Alan McMonagle's previous novel - Ithaca - and this one is just as full of personality. Laura is both charismatic and disturbed. Much like the dark themes in Ithaca, Laura will say or reveal horrible things about herself all while grinning ear to ear. The first person writing brings her to life as a character, and like all of McMonagle's books, it's difficult to separate fact from fiction. I would highly recommend you give this a go and just stick with it. At a certain part in the middle of the book you will probably wonder "where is this going? What is going on? What even is the story?", but I promise you it pays off.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews