How To Be Famous: A Novel

By Caitlin Moran

Johanna Morrigan (aka Dolly Wilde) has it all: she is nineteen, lives in her own flat in London, and writes for the coolest music magazine in Britain. Her star is rising, just not quickly enough for her liking.

Then John Kite, Johanna’s unrequited love, has an album go to number one. Suddenly John exists on another plane of reality: that of the Famouses, a world of rabid fans and VIP access. Johanna lacks the traditional trappings of fame (famous parents, mind-scorching hotness, exotic sandals, etc.), so she does the only thing a self-respecting Lady Sex Adventurer can do. She starts a magazine column critiquing the lives and follies of the Famouses around her. But as Johanna skyrockets to fame herself, she begins to realize that with celebrity comes sacrifice, and hers may mean giving up the one person she was determined to keep.

For anyone who has been a girl or known one, who has admired fame or judged it, How to Be Famous is a big-hearted, hilarious tale of fame and fortune—and all that they entail.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781443448529

Caitlin Moran

Caitlin Moran (Brighton, Reino Unido, 1975) recibió en 2010 el Premio de la Prensa Británica al mejor columnista del año y en 2011 el premio al mejor crítico y entrevistador. En Anagrama ha publicado Cómo ser mujer (uno de los mayores y más fulminantes éxitos en lengua inglesa de los últimos tiempos, libro del año en los Galaxy National Book Awards, y que obtuvo el British Book Awards Book of the Year y un Irish Book Award): «El feminismo de Moran, imprescindible en la sociedad actual, no es pacato ni cristaliza en el uso de un lenguaje políticamente correcto. Mete el dedo en el ojo a los lectores. Al mismo tiempo, provoca carcajadas al contradecir algunos de los lugares comunes del feminismo sin dejar de ser feminista» (Marta Sanz); «Si Tom Sharpe hubiese sido señora y ensayista, habría firmado Cómo ser mujer. Es la contracrónica de la historia del feminismo» (Sara Carreira, La Voz de Galicia); «Una guía de neofeminismo punk» (Gabriela Wiener), y las novelas Cómo se hace una chica: «Caitlin Moran ataca de nuevo con su punk y divertida novela. Todos somos una chica rellenita con ganas de patear culos. Moran nos da la fuerza» (Luna Miguel, Playground); «Si pudieran sintetizarla sería una anfetamina. Moran dispara bromas y frases hilarantes a ritmo de chachachá acelerado» (Lucía Lijtmaer, eldiario.es), y Cómo ser famosa: «La “chica mala” de la literatura británica... despliega su capacidad para la sátira» (Lourdes Ventura, El Mundo); «Con la misma inteligencia humorística paranormal de siempre analiza el espejismo de la fama» (Miqui Otero, El Periódico); «Descarada, procaz, gamberra y muy divertida» (Eva Cosculluela, ABC).

Reviews for How To Be Famous

[lara335 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such funny, original, honest writing, that I didn’t want to finish. I loved her reasoning in support of girls having sex with rock gods: unlike your dad’s mates they’re not going to tell you the stuff they’ve just bought from Wicks. If you appreciate sentences like: ‘John’s life was like a zoo on fire....I didn’t want to be a sidelined penguin. I wanted to be the whole ark’, then you will love this.

[thesmellofbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful, rude, rumbustious novel set in the 1995 Brit-pop scene in London. Teenager Dolly Wilde is in love with pop star John Kite, her best friend but not her lover. She ekes out a name for herself as a cheeky young columnist, but a nasty, misogynist male comedian tries to take her down. Music, feminism, wisdom, innocence, sexuality, and youth combine with Caitlin Moran's trademark wit to make this a brilliant (and very rude) coming of age story.