Rock star superstar Book

This is a book about a kid named Peter McGrady. He plays the bass and is totally good at it. So good that he can play “So What?” by Miles Davis with his musician dad every night. His dad is a good guitarist and an alcoholic. His mom died of cancer when he was younger. The book makes you think these things will be explored. They never are.

Peter is 16 years old when the book begins. He is in high school, and he is in a cover band called "Mad Skillz". This book was published in the early 2000s, when every word ending with “s” used a “z” instead. So I guess it was the 2000z. Anyway, they’re okay but Peter gets asked to play in this band called “Tiny Masters of Today.” The guys running the band are older and totally amateur (according to Peter), but they have a raw power he can’t help but notice. Still, he thinks he is too good for them so he denies their requests. He denies them many many times because he is so good.

Meanwhile he meets with a girl named Margaret. She is kind of chubby and dresses weird, and Peter thinks she is totally a freak. She isn’t popular and she writes poetry. What a freak! She helps Peter buy shoes for a “Mad Skillz” gig and they start talking. Peter doesn’t like her. I mean, she’s a total freak right? How could he like her? Then Peter likes her. Then they make out and “do other stuff.” What does “do other stuff” mean? I don’t know, ask Peter.

“Mad Skillz” starts to lose itself. They start to sell out to an electronic sound but Peter only plays real music. So he quits and finally joins “Tiny Masters.” “Tiny Masters” starts getting big. Peter meets a lot of people who all talk the same way. I don’t remember any of their names. Then he has inane conversations with Margaret like this:

“Do you want to be boyfriend and girlfriend?” she asked.
“Do you?”
She nodded.
“Okay,” I said.
“But only if you want to,” she said.
“I want to.”
“Okay,” she said.

(P. 28)

Or this:

“So Lauren and Robert want to go ice-skating,” Margaret told me at lunch.
“Okay,” I said.
“Like on Friday.”
“We’re playing Blackbird on Friday.”
“How about Saturday?”
“Yeah, Saturday’s cool,” I said.

(P. 170)

This is how high schoolers talk. Apparently.

Then “Tiny Masters” starts getting popular. Peter keeps playing gigs. Then he says he’s in love with Margaret and they have sex for the first time. Then popular girls start to notice Peter and he talks about how insanely hot they are. Then he goes on tour with “Tiny Masters” and cheats on Margaret with a folksinger. Then he comes home and he and Margaret fight. Margaret’s parents don’t like him. Then they break up. But he loves her. So he misses her. Then he starts dating a girl who is more popular and more hot than Margaret. But she wants to have sex all the time so Peter isn’t into it.

Then he records an album with “Tiny Masters” and they go to L.A. to get famous. They play some shows and the record guys like them. But they want to work with the guitarist and singer, so the “Tiny Masters” break up. Then Peter meets his dad’s friend in L.A. He stays with her until he can go home. He plays video games with his dad’s friend’s daughter. Then he goes home. He didn’t get a recording contract, but he isn’t a sell out. He is all about the music. He has always been about the music. “Tiny Masters” was full of amateurs anyway. Then he meets up with Margaret. They stare into each other’s eyes. Then Peter looks forward to the future. Then The End.

Imagine reading an entire novel written like this. With sentence flow that stops and starts like this. Things happen, then other things happen, then other things happen. With no consequence, no build up, no resolution. People do things and then things happen. No one grows or changes. The situation doesn’t really change either. Things happen, but really nothing happens.

This was one of my favorite books in middle school. I thought it would be fun to re-read it. It was an interesting experience. I know why it sucks, but I also know why I liked it. When I was in middle school, this book was what I thought high school would be like. Playing in bands, drinking and partying, getting with girls, that was what high school was. Everyone still acted and talked like middle school kids, they just had more fun. That was what I assumed.

Peter is a self-centered asshole who thinks he is such a good musician that he is above most music. Peter also wants to make out and do other stuff with hot girls. He thinks being in love is the same as dating someone for awhile, and he will never sell out like an amateur. Middle-school-me loved this book because middle-school-me could slip himself into Peter’s character. This is one of those novels where the characters are empty shells and the reader fills them with their own experiences. And the reader can live out a fantasy People harp on Twilight for using this technique but Rock Star Superstar did it sooner. The internet only hates Twilight because girls liked it. The internet hates girls. I think middle-school-me hated girls too. But middle schoolers are jerks so who cares what they think?

Well the fantasy is over. This book doesn’t live up to my discerning adult standards. But I’m still bumping this up a star for old time’s sake. I wasn’t reading Kafka at age 13, but at least I was reading something.