press release
New Jersey: 18 October 2011
for general distribution--
Love Me Do by Jonnie Comet
Some stories, written at specific times in history, inevitably
become dated as references, both direct and indirect, lose their relevance. This is the problem when an author, writing
only for his own age, attempts to be 'hip' and to rely on esoteric current
events and references in more than an incidental way. But some stories, notably The Great Gatsby,
though they may seem but snapshots into a particular period, both convey to
contemporary readers the zeitgeist of their own time and still stand as
historical mementoes to entertain and enlighten future generations.
Comparisons to Gatsby are unavoidable when perusing Love
Me Do (Surf City Source Media Group), reportedly Jonnie Comet's first
novel. Begun when the author was still
in high school himself, this old-fashioned love story, containing several
clever twists, stands as an authentic view of what teenaged life was like in
the mid-1970s. Refreshingly, unlike
later depictions of the same period, Love Me Do does not descend into
sex, drugs and rebellion, too often presumed to be the main forces of that
time. In their place is a tender
portrayal of two unexpectedly shy teens embarking on a chaste romance that
seems to parallel the zeitgeist of an even earlier age.
On the surface it is a typical tale of people from opposite ends
of society, a popular, pretty cheerleader from a happy middle-class home and a
prodigal rock-and-roll musician and hot-rodder from a fractious working-class
background. Through a series of unique
circumstances, they become attracted to each other, socialise, fall apart due
to conflicting social influences and then suffer in shyness and silence whilst
hoping to resume their relationship on more sensible and serious grounds.
The similarities to Gatsby are conspicuous-- and intended.
Jonnie Comet has claimed that reading Gatsby in 11th year was his single
major inspiration to write in the first place. The author has described LMD as 'a
classic chivalric romance reset in 1970s Connecticut.' The two protagonists, Jon and Jeanne, almost
wilfully play out romantic roles from the days of chivalry. Symbolic elements, such as a silver Chevy as
his trusty grey stallion, contribute both aesthetically and thematically to the
motif of a would-be knight in shining armour intent on meriting a virtuous
maiden upon a pedestal through noble feats. After one dramatic fight sequence, Jeanne
blushes to spy two figurines in his mother's parlour: '...David the modest but
valiant giant-slayer, looking protectively over his shoulder at the beautiful
but defenceless Venus DiMilo'. The
parallel is not lost on her, nor on the reader.
Dualities abound in this novel, imposing both conflict and
contradiction. Beautiful, charming and universally coveted, the girl who should
have everything, Jeanne is encumbered by a dual nature rendering her patently
indecisive. She will shun any single
course that might upset a friend or, within the chaste context of the story, disappoint
a boy. As if against her own wishes she
frequently finds herself dating two boys over the same period, even whilst she
pines for the only one who has ever truly aroused her heart.
Though a creative musician and artist by birth and choice, Jon is
unexpectedly ethical and conservative, resistant to unnecessary risks
especially where his own heart is concerned. In the first half of the book he blows three
or four good opportunities to reconnect with the girl whom he has always wanted
but whom he humbly believes he does not deserve. Their mutually unrequited attraction dates to
a first meeting when both were very young; but after he is required to save her
from drowning neither one is able to come to terms with what that implies. So the story is their separate but
corresponding attempts to mend the breach caused by embarrassment and to find
common ground on which to base a real relationship.
As with all classic romances, innocently or forcefully suppressed
sexuality is never absent. Jeanne is described
in a beautiful dress 'flowing out about her like the petals of a flower about
their pistil', a reference to her prominent purity. Jon wears a leather flier's jacket, suggesting
both combat potential and brutish virility. But the story, though told sensually, is not
about sexuality, but about the lack of it. The author's own Platonic conception of the
ideal boy and girl does not require a carnal component, as though to say that
before any of that, there are only two pairs of eyes, two voices, two minds and
two hearts, and from those elements are the truest romances made.
As a period piece, Love Me Do's great virtue is of
accurately depicting a time before mobile phones and the Internet, when young
people too out of circulation might have only perceptions and fears on which to
dwell. Even a phone call between Jon and
Jeanne is thus partly climactic. But rather
than dating it, the book's setting serves to illustrate the timeless theme of
romance at its purest, as written by a romantic purist. In the forward to this, the
twentieth-anniversary third edition, the author invites his reader to 'Delve
into this book, live it, love it, dream it, drown in it, as though it were your
first love-at-first-sight and first kiss all over again.' This unadulterated joy is the raison d'etre of Jonnie Comet's Love Me Do.
Love Me Do is available in paperback and Kindle e-text
through Amazon.com or in paperback here--
https://www.createspace.com/3503820
https://www.createspace.com/3503820
