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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who Is Directing Us?, May 3, 2007
Seventeen-year-old movie buff Germaine Greer (aka Gem) might not have been named after a Shakespeare-loving feminist if both her parents had been around. Gem has never seen her father, Rolf, because he has been absent her whole life. But luckily, she's close enough with her mother Bev that they could be considered friends. Having never really been what she would label "popular," Gem feels even luckier to have two girls like Lo and Mira as her closest friends.
The narrator describes the three-girl plot this way: each girl is seeking something...one gets lucky, one ends up where she started, and the other gets lost. As in the past, they decide they need a theme for the year --- some way for them to do whatever they want and not have to apologize. The art and film fanatic that she is, Gem comes up with an idea involving Andy Warhol and his Factory of Superstars and planning an art Happening so Underground it'll blow everyone's minds.
1 word --- 3 syllables --- Underground --- Ug.
At first Lo and Mira can't grasp the artistic genius of her plan, offering their own suggestions of Art Terror and the likes. But finally they come around and decide to shoot a film called The F-Word and throw The New Year's Happening of all time --- The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. They'll be surrounded by art and possibility.
Gem is forced to ask Roger "Dodgy" Brick, one of her co-workers at Videocity, to let her borrow a video camera. If the dictionary had a word for someone you're attracted to and repelled by at the same time, it would have Dodgy's picture next to it --- 100% barcode guy. But she falls for him anyway, mostly because she wants to experience the same carnal knowledge that Lo and Mira claim to have known.
Gem's great art gurus say that the way art mirrors life, it doesn't need a point. Bev says that life is not about the end...it's about the journey. Others say to devote yourself to something impossible, to give it your whole self and everything will turn out just fine. Gem thinks she sees all that and more, wanting her film to show the powerful links between all the formidable women of history. The only problem is that Gem doesn't know how to do this. So when things with Lo and Mira and The Happening fall to pieces, she feels caught somewhere between damaged and anomaly.
"What was our story? Were we just beginning, or were we experimental? Who was directing us?"
Mix these questions together with the I Ching and hexagrams, a dashboard Elvis, tongue piercings, Fu-Manchu mustaches, Monet's Waterlilies, Guatemalan worry dolls, The Curse of the Ugly, man teachers nicknamed "Boobs," party streaking and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND. Then grab some popcorn and enjoy this camera's-eye view of these teenagers up-close, all poise and control. At first. Keep the camera focused on them long enough, though, and their real selves emerge --- the uncertainty on their faces, their lives of quiet desperation, the unquenchable longing for something to Happen. That's where the good stuff is.
--- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens
Review first published at Teenreads, 2007.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Take Note, January 2, 2008
Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell shows life through the eyes of a young Australian filmmaker. The more Gem works on her film, the more she learns about her friends -- and about herself.
The book focuses on the personal side of the filmmaking process rather than the technical side. This is about the girl, not the brand of camera she uses. There's something utterly delightful about Gem's take on things - fairly straightforward, totally accepting, and extremely thoughtful.
This book is realistic and comfortable without ever feeling dated or overwrought. It would have felt contemporary ten or fifteen years ago, and it probably will still feel comfortable five or ten years from now.
The author summed up the book perfectly: "Notes is a YA book about underground films, outsider girls, dodgy boys, art happenings and friendship freakouts."
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, April 4, 2007
NOTES FROM THE TEENAGE UNDERGROUND is a fantastic debut novel! It starts out with three best friends, Gem, Lo, and Mira, trying to come up with ideas for their summer project. The summer before was their Satan Summer; they dabbled in all things occult. The summer project has a theme, goals, and guides. This year, they want to do something spectacular; it could be their last summer project--who knows what the future will bring?
Lo is usually the one with ideas, but this time, Gem has some ideas of her own. Their theme for the year is Underground, whatever that means. Ug for short. Their guide? This is where Gem is inspired. She sees some of his work--four films of kissing couples playing over and over--at the National Gallery, and she decides, with a bit of help from her artsy mother, Bev, that Andy Warhol should be their guide into the world of the Underground (which at first kept making me think of riding the subway a lot...). She does some research into Andy Warhol, his work, his life, and the people around him, and then comes up with a goal: to make an Underground film.
During the course of this project, Gem realizes a lot of things about her life and her relationships. She feels like her friendship with Lo and Mira is an isosceles triangle; the two of them are close together, and Gem is all alone at one end. She's also being pressured to make some decisions about her future, as all seventeen-year-olds are. Her mother and Sharon, school counselor and Gem's godmother, want her to go to University, but Gem's a lot more interested in film school. Speaking of her love of movies, she's starting to think she could love something else at Video City, where she works--her coworker, Dodgy. On top of all of this, Gem's father, Rolf, has always been out of the picture, just sending the occasional weird haiku from where he lives out in the wilderness--but now it looks as though he could be stepping back into Gem's life, at least for awhile.
This summer is a turning point in Gem's life. When it's all over, Gem will be different. Her life will be different. This much is pretty obvious. But how will things change?
I really, really loved this book. It was a lot of fun to read, and the idea of the summer project was very interesting, something that set this book apart from a ton of others. Almost all young adult literature is about things changing, as that's what's always going on for teenagers, but Simmone Howell's novel had something that makes it stand out in my mind! If it's got Andy Warhol and obscure movies in it, it's got to be different.
Gem is a wonderful character. I really felt, while reading this, as if I knew her. She's very interesting, and what goes on in her mind is fascinating. I couldn't put this book down! I woke up at one in the morning, for some reason anxious to finish this book. That almost never happens to me! As I'm writing this, it's a little bit difficult to explain what about this book is so amazing, but there's something. It really captures the teenage experience. Simmone Howell obviously remembers this time in her life very well! I'm going to have to revise my `Best of 2006' list to add this one! This is a must read!
Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce
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