Famous by Todd Strasser.

My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies by Allen Zadoff.

In the author blurb, Todd Strasser says he “decided to write Famous after realizing that teens and kids are obsessed with fame.” The book is about sixteen year old paparazzo, Jamie Gordon, and her best friend, Avy Tennent, who wants to be a famous actor. The story is told in chapters from several points of view, and there’s constant switching between Jamie’s first person story and Avy’s first person story and the letters of some weird guy named Richard who’s stalking teen star Willow Twine, and several second person intervals in which the author pretends that the reader is Jamie while she’s unravelling the secret of what happened to Avy when he ran away to LA. It’s confusing. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like stories or any part thereof told in second person. I’ll enter the story on my own terms; don’t try to pop me in there where I don’t belong.

However, that aside, the novel did make me think about the obsessive desire to become famous, to be known, that I’ve seen in many people I’ve known. I don’t think I have this hunger for fame that afflicts some people. I do enjoy people reading my blog, but riches and celebrity and people focusing on me, watching me, adoring me—no, that’s not appealing at all.

And even though the magazines say They’re Just Like Us! they’re not really. They’re prettier, smarter, richer and, to be brutally honest, just better.
Oops! I said it, didn’t I! That they’re better than you. And better than me.
Sucks, doesn’t it? That deep down you believe they must be better, different, special. They have to be better.
Because they’re famous.
And you’re not.
But maybe that’s not the whole truth either.
Maybe the truth is, they’re no better than you or me or anyone else.
Then why do we think they are?
Perhaps because we want to. We need to.

Well, I don’t believe that celebrities are enviable or better than me. In fact, I could much more readily identify with the protagonist in the second book in this double review post, My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies. Sophomore Adam Ziegler is a techie, NOT an actor. And in his school, Montclair High, the division between the two groups, techs and actors, is deep and unbridgeable. Techies don’t associate with or respect actors, and vice versa. Actors are the ones who always want to be seen and admired, but techies are the ones who make it happen behind the scenes. Adam is particularly fascinated by lights. He’s the guy “on a catwalk, high above the theater floor, surrounded by lighting instruments and cable, watching the actors get a tour of the set down below.” And Adam likes being invisible, behind the lights rather than in front.

I like the idea that there are two kinds of people, call them introverts and extroverts, behind the camera and out in front, famous or wannabe famous and the rest of us. Of course, I identify with the techies, not because I’m particularly handy with electricity or a hammer, but because I’m an something of an introvert myself. But these two books demonstrate that there are strengths and dangers in both personality types and both ways of coping with the world. Extroverts can turn into narcissists, constantly seeking fame and affirmation, and if they don’t get it easily they can go to extreme lengths to feed the beast. Introverts, however, can be just as self-centered and can shut themselves off from the world, preferring their own company to the joy of engaging in relationship.

I’d say these are both cautionary tales, but not in a preachy, didactic way. Famous demonstrates what happens to those who put themselves and their own fame above every other consideration: they end up destroying themselves. And My Life . . . shows how one introvert, hiding in the shadows, is able to come out into the light and assert himself. Balance is the key.

Both books contain some bad language, and some teen age immature (crude) behavior. Famous also deals with drug use, abusive cosmetic surgery, and generally nasty and obsessive behavior.