Title: Ziggy, Stardust and Me
Author: James Brandon
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Length: 368 Pages
Category: YA/Teen Fiction
At a Glance: Ziggy, Stardust and Me is author James Brandon’s debut novel, and it is a stellar entry that has left its mark on me in the way only a book can.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: The year is 1973. The Watergate hearings are in full swing. The Vietnam War is still raging. And homosexuality is still officially considered a mental illness. In the midst of these trying times is sixteen-year-old Jonathan Collins, a bullied, anxious, asthmatic kid, who aside from an alcoholic father and his sympathetic neighbor and friend Starla, is completely alone. To cope, Jonathan escapes to the safe haven of his imagination, where his hero David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and dead relatives, including his mother, guide him through the rough terrain of his life. In his alternate reality, Jonathan can be anything: a superhero, an astronaut, Ziggy Stardust, himself, or completely “normal” and not a boy who likes other boys. When he completes his treatments, he will be normal–at least he hopes. But before that can happen, Web stumbles into his life. Web is everything Jonathan wishes he could be: fearless, fearsome and, most importantly, not ashamed of being gay.
Jonathan doesn’t want to like brooding Web, who has secrets all his own. Jonathan wants nothing more than to be “fixed” once and for all. But he’s drawn to Web anyway. Web is the first person in the real world to see Jonathan completely and think he’s perfect. Web is a kind of escape Jonathan has never known. For the first time in his life, he may finally feel free enough to love and accept himself as he is.
Review: The 70s was a decade ushered in by the Manson murder trials and ushered out by the decline of disco fever, while in between, there were notable social and political markers—Vietnam, Watergate, the uprising at Wounded Knee, the surge of second wave feminism… It was a turbulent decade dictated by social flux and generational discord, flower power and the hippie movement, and Brandon captures the era beautifully as the setting for Jonathan Collins’ story. He offers those who experienced it firsthand the opportunity to reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly of it, while giving younger readers a clear picture of the time without it coming across as a history lesson. The author’s ability to finesse details and make his story accessible, from the slang to the music—music obviously plays an important role—cannot be undervalued in its relevance to and influence on the characters and their journey.
My love of Jonathan flourished immediately and only continued to grow as his story progressed. Ziggy, Stardust and Me takes place in 1973, in the final few weeks of Jonathan’s junior year of high school and on into mid-summer, and the timing is critical to his character. Brandon parses out the details of Jonny’s backstory, but just as imperative as the events that came to shape him, is his present—from his non-relationship with his father, to the bullying he endures, to his vivid and varied inscape, to the psychiatric treatments (read: extreme aversion therapy) he goes through to “fix” himself. This is what makes the timing of the story relevant as homosexuality was still considered a psychological disorder, although attitudes were in the process of evolving, and it was an immediate gut-punch to witness Jonny’s determination to be “normal”, even if it meant going through electroshock treatments to achieve it. He’s such a vibrant and colorful narrator, fully present in his storytelling, and his life becomes less a passive thing when he meets Web.
“At some point you have to stop and say, ‘Enough. This is me.’ And fight for it as hard as you can. Get it?” ~ Web
If you consider meeting the boy you’ll end up falling for while hiding out in a school bathroom a meet-cute, then there you have it. That’s how Jonathan and Web meet, although they never lay eyes on each other in that moment. They’re disembodied voices bouncing off toilet stalls and cinderblock walls, but they seem to get each other nonetheless. Their attraction becomes obvious and undeniable, though, when they are paired up for a classroom project. But it’s not without the full-on confusion and negative associations of Jonathan’s belief that he’s fundamentally broken. Web has his own backstory which is influenced by the oppression of and prejudice against his culture and heritage. I loved him and the way he drew Jonathan out and encouraged him to accept and embrace himself, but Web is a fully formed character on his own. Web is not a result of his relationship with Jonny, he’s the spark that lights the fire for everything Jonny goes through after they meet. In return, Jonathan brings Web to a place where he feels like he doesn’t want to hide anymore, and it all adds up to a beautiful story.
Clouds shape-shift, taking me on a caravel ride in the winds. Far, far away, I wave my arms in half circles to make a grass angel.
Rivers of tears fall and form little puddles, in the flattened wings.
Ziggy, Stardust and Me is author James Brandon’s debut novel, and it is a stellar entry that has left its mark on me in the way only a book can. Jonathan broke my heart a little on more than a few occasions, and then James Brandon put it back together again. There are so many different aspects that recommend this book on their own: the characters, their story, the healing, the setting, the author’s voice—which is expressive and so easy to become lost in. And, the fact that Brandon never forgets he’s writing the story from a teenager’s point of view was key. There is nothing that distances me from a Young Adult novel quicker than the teenage characters coming across as unauthentic and contrived; The author not only pays respect to his audience, but he does so with an attention to the integrity of the time the story takes place, and it all came together superbly.
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