Character in novel inspired by Morrissey?

[lamission]

I just read a book called XOXO Hayden. One of the main characters (Hayden) is a British singer, inspired (I think) by Morrissey. Not an exact match at all, but was interesting and a good read.

[Jukebox Jury]

I just read a book called XOXO Hayden. One of the main characters (Hayden) is a British singer, inspired (I think) by Morrissey. Not an exact match at all, but was interesting and a good read.

Can you give brief examples of why you feel the character was inspired by Morrissey?

Jukebox Jury

[lainey]

The Buddha of Suburbia is one of my favourite book and the author Hanif Kureishi went to school with Billy Idol (the same school as David Bowie)
The character of Charlie is modelled on the rock-singer Billy Idol. It painted such a vivid and interesting picture of punk life in the 70's as many experiences and characters in Buddha are part of Kureishi´s own life.

[caz-34]

From the authors page on Amazon.com:

"Music has always been a big part of my writing. It's what inspires and motivates me, often giving me ideas for stories and characters. I've always been a big Smiths/Morrissey fan and am particularly obsessed with the song, "Paint a Vulgar Picture." No matter how many times, I listen to it, I'm always struck by the sadness of it. Of an unrequited, tortured love between a world famous pop star and a lovelorn suburban teenager.

After listening to "Paint a Vulgar Picture" for the six hundredth time, it finally struck me that it would make a great story. And from there, the idea for XOXO Hayden began. I began writing it in a writer's group made up of close friends in 2004 and workshopped it a UCLA extension class. Once a week I met with my friend Jenna Milly, (who helped me immensely) to trade pages- she was working on her own novel."

http://www.amazon.com/Chris-Corkum/e/B00366D0ZM/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

This book hasn't been published in UK yet. A quiet day at work today...

[Qvist]

Perhaps some day someone will translate Frode Grytten's Bikubesong ("Songs of the beehive") into english. A series of stories tied together by all the characters living in the same building in the small Norwegian industrial town of Odda, it is explicitly Smiths-inspired. One of the stories (called "sing me to sleep") even features a mailman who refuses to wear a uniform and delivers the mail with flowers stuck into the back pocket of his jeans, lives with his dying mother and spends most of his time thinking about Morrissey lyrics. The rest doesn't really directly reference the Smiths, but are a really wonderful series of poignant kitchen-sink dramas very much in the Morrissey spirit. It won awards, sold a ton and even got turned into an extremely successful theatre piece - which included a band (The Margarets) doing Smiths songs.

cheers

[Sim Tappertit]

What about Rendezvous In Black by Cornel Woolrich.

It's about a murderer called Johnny Marr and at one point he has a fight with a character called Morrissey.

[jamescagney]

What about Rendezvous In Black by Cornel Woolrich.

It's about a murderer called Johnny Marr and at one point he has a fight with a character called Morrissey.

Was it in the nonfiction section? :)

It would explain young Morrissey's interest in Johnny! No doubt they drove to the moors at night at least once together...

[punkinthesupermarket]

Perhaps some day someone will translate Frode Grytten's Bikubesong ("Songs of the beehive") into english. A series of stories tied together by all the characters living in the same building in the small Norwegian industrial town of Odda, it is explicitly Smiths-inspired. One of the stories (called "sing me to sleep") even features a mailman who refuses to wear a uniform and delivers the mail with flowers stuck into the back pocket of his jeans, lives with his dying mother and spends most of his time thinking about Morrissey lyrics. The rest doesn't really directly reference the Smiths, but are a really wonderful series of poignant kitchen-sink dramas very much in the Morrissey spirit. It won awards, sold a ton and even got turned into an extremely successful theatre piece - which included a band (The Margarets) doing Smiths songs.

cheers

i read a German translation of it - very very good -!!! and yes shame it's not available in English

[goinghome]

What about Rendezvous In Black by Cornel Woolrich.

It's about a murderer called Johnny Marr and at one point he has a fight with a character called Morrissey.

It reminds me of this pugilistic encounter -
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F0DEEDB1430E132A25754C1A9609C94 689ED7CF :cool:

[Jukebox Jury]

The Buddha of Suburbia is one of my favourite book and the author Hanif Kureishi went to school with Billy Idol (the same school as David Bowie)
The character of Charlie is modelled on the rock-singer Billy Idol. It painted such a vivid and interesting picture of punk life in the 70's as many experiences and characters in Buddha are part of Kureishi´s own life.

lainey
As a mad Generation X fan - (watching them do 'King Rocker' on TOTP in 1979, aged 16, transformed me into a 'no nothing about music' into a punk rocker overnight. Sid had died a few weeks before, punk was dead in the real world, but not in mine:guitar::guitar:) - I'll be checking this out:rock:

Jukebox Jury

[lainey]

lainey
As a mad Generation X fan - (watching them do 'King Rocker' on TOTP in 1979, aged 16, transformed me into a 'no nothing about music' into a punk rocker overnight. Sid had died a few weeks before, punk was dead in the real world, but not in mine:guitar::guitar:) - I'll be checking this out:rock:

Jukebox Jury

I look at Billy the same way Marc Bolan did during Generation X's TV appearance on his show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT2KRZz4G0s

The Buddha of Suburbia author Hanif Kureishi says...

Music is very important in this book, too. It was my obsession when I was growing up, as it was for many people of my generation. This was a time when postwar music was at its best, from the mid-50s until 1976, just after the beginning of punk. Music was seen by the lower-middle classes as a way of getting out - through art school - into a band. In the novel, Charlie Hero is of course a musician, and he was representative of some of the kids that I grew up with - the Bromley contingent as they were known, including Billy Idol, and the kids who formed Siouxsie and the Banshees and others who became pop photographers or went to work for Vivienne Westwood.



”I´m Karim Admir, an Englishman, born and bred, almost” is the start of the book.
he also wrote My Beautiful Laundrette and I also recommend The Body.

[Sim Tappertit]

Was it in the nonfiction section? :)

It would explain young Morrissey's interest in Johnny! No doubt they drove to the moors at night at least once together...

It's mentioned in Mozipedia but you can see a preview here -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rendezvous-Modern-Library-Cornell-Woolrich/dp/0812971450

very weird coincidence!

[Qvist]

i read a German translation of it - very very good -!!! and yes shame it's not available in English

Glad to hear it! Did you know about the Morrissey-connection before you bought it?

cheers

[caz-34]

I've just read "The More You Ignore Me" by Jo Brand. I saw it in Sainsbury's this morning and was attracted by the title. It's a story about a young woman whose mother suffers from a mental illness, and then her life is transformed when she turns on the TV and sees Morrissey on TOTP performing This Charming Man... I read the book in a few hours, and have to say I didn't really enjoy it. If anyone would like my copy, I will post it to them FOC in UK.

[Mozza220559]

I read a similar book!

http://i50.tinypic.com/if4vph.jpg

[caz-34]

I read a similar book!

http://i50.tinypic.com/if4vph.jpg

Your story is more amusing than "The Hilarious, Poignant, Darkly Comic Novel by the Queen of Comedy"

What's the story about your Morrissey and baby picture - the face looks like the actor James Bolam and is quite scary!

[lainey]

:lbf: I once saw Billy Idol as a support act and I remember very vividly that I was scared that he'd jump off the stage. Which oddly happened twice with other singers since and they more bizarrely ran straight towards me. These things are not supposed to happen! :eek: After a while though, while Billy Idol remained on stage, I figured that he is not that scary after all but rather... tame. :D

The book mentions this in a clever, enlightening way but I won't say how as JJ is going to read it and I don't want to spoil it.