Funny Girl - Softcover

Hornby, Nick

3.4

30,827 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0670922811 ISBN 13: 9780670922819

Publisher: VIKIN, 2014

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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingenue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters.

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Review:

An Amazon Best Book of the Month for February 2015: No, Nick Hornby’s latest is not a retelling of the story made famous by the old Barbara Streisand movie called Funny Girl – but the allusion to pop culture of the 1960s in this delightful novel is not coincidental. On the surface, this Funny Girl is about a working class English girl who comes of age as a TV star in the days of Carnaby Street, the Beatles, and the musical Hair; what it’s also about is the way the world turned over for everybody – but especially actors and writers -- in that explosive era. Sophie Straw is the gorgeous girl from Blackpool who, like Lucille Ball (to whom Hornby slyly introduces the starstruck Sophie in a late scene), is originally deemed too pretty to be funny; like Ball, she manages through wit, decency and pratfall to become her nation’s sweetheart. She’s a great character, and readers – like everyone in swinging London – will love her. But if Sophie is the star, the rest of the population here – the hilariously narcissistic lover/co-star, the director who pines for Sophie for years, and, my favorite, the writers who give her her vehicles – are exceptional supporting players. And Hornby, who was a bit of a pop culture wunderkind himself, is wise about the way artists’ (especially writers’) careers morph and change, and what it’s like to define a cultural moment and then watch yourself live past it. -- Sara Nelson

About the Author:

Nick Hornby is the author of seven internationally bestselling novels ("Funny Girl, " "High Fidelity, About a Boy, How to be Good, A Long Way Down, Slam"and"Juliet, Naked")and severalworks of non-fictionincluding"Fever Pitch, Songbook"and"Ten Years In The Tub." He has written screenplay adaptions of Lynn Barber s An Education, nominated for an Academy Award, Cheryl Strayed's"Wild"and Colm Toibin s "Brooklyn." He lives in London.

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