I was browsing the music books in the stacks of the UMass Amherst Library and I came across the book "I Think I Love You" by Allison Pearson. "Wow!" I thought, "A book about idolizing a celebrity who is still alive!" Somehow you know most of these books about idols are usually about dead idols like "The Beatles" or Elvis. So I checked out the book and brought it home. It sat in the corner with it's pink cover (UMass doesn't keep the book jackets) for a long time. Now finally I am reading it. This is not the kind of book I "normally" read. Ha, I've said that before too, haven't I? The book is split into two parts. The first part is around 1974 when David Cassidy is a super-star worldwide. The second part is set in late 1990s.
I was three years old in 1974. When I was a little older, but not much, somewhere in the 7-10 year old range I did have David Cassidy albums, Shaun Cassidy albums, and Donny and Marie Osmond albums and I loved them but I was not a teen. By the time I was a teen these idols were a thing of the past. When I was a teen MTV had just been invented (I was 11 in 1982).
Skip forward a whole lot of years to the late 90s (when the 2nd half of the book takes place) and I end up with a job for five years working with a guy who is stuck in the 1970s mentally. He loves Elvis, Karen Carpenter, the Red Sox blowing the World Series, and The Partridge Family. Thanks to this guy I got a pretty good dose of David Cassidy and that whole decade that I missed because I was just a little too young.
I'm not quite done with the book so I'm not ready to review it, however I have been doing a little research. Thanks to the internet it feels like everything has already been said before.
Allison Pearson is on Twitter and Facebook. Her Facebook page has over 400 likes and those fans like her book and David Cassidy and are happy to tell all about it.
Since the book has been out for a while there are a lot of reviews. It's hard to find anything negative although I get the feeling that not everyone on earth likes the book or likes the author. She was in trouble with her contract when she wrote it. Due to clinical depression the book came out several years later than it was supposed to. There are a lot of positive reviews and other write-ups though. It might be hard for me to find something new to say. While I am still pondering my thoughts and reading the last of the book, here are some other words about it:
From GazetteNet and the Philadelphia Inquirer:
http://www.gazettenet.com/2011/03/16/its-1974-and-shes-sure-she-loves-david-cassidy?SESS2cb73eef2c4fca8b0b0ac5f643f5da42=gnews
From NPR, more about the author than the book:
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/23/133871975/allison-pearsons-love-affair-with-keith-partridge
From the New York Times (one of my favorite places for reviews):
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/books/01book.html
Here's some comments about the author from the UK:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7112156.ece
I found a couple of good blog entries too. Both of these I can relate to.:
http://theuglybugball.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/summer-days-with-david-cassidy/
http://susancoventry.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-review-i-think-i-love-you-by.html
I like that second entry the best of all of these links. Susan has done a great job with it.
I'll try to think of more to say when I'm actually done reading and I don't have a five year old sleeping on my chest.
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