Goodnight Steve McQueen » (Bargain)

Before turning to writing, Louise Wener was the lead singer of the 1990s British band Sleeper. She lives in London.

From the author of The Perfect Play comes a charmingly romantic–yet very edgy-novel set in the music industry about friendship,
love, growing up, and always following your dreams.

Danny McQueen has dreamed of being a pop star since he was thirteen-years-old. Now he's twenty-nine and still dreaming. But he faces a dilemma. His girlfriend Alison wants him to sort his life out. She's given him an ultimatum: Find a record deal by the end of the year or it's find a new girlfriend. When is it time to give up on your childhood ambitions? When is it time to stop watching Columbo in your underpants and get a proper job? Is six months long enough for one last assault on the big time? Is friendship ever more important than love? Is it just your imagination or can your girlfriend always tell when you've been looking at Internet porn? With the help of his boss Kostas, his two best friends, and an eighty-year-old Kung Fu enthusiast called Sheila, Danny McQueen is about to find out.

Publishers Weekly

In this larkish first novel by former British pop star Wener, her second book to be published in the U.S. (after The Perfect Play, 2004), the author trains her razor-sharp wit on the transition between postadolescent drifting and adulthood. Inveterate loser Danny-formerly Steve-McQueen plays guitar in the rock 'n' roll outfit Dakota; though the band's big break has always been just around the corner, this time they may stumble upon fame. But Danny's girlfriend, Alison, has professional aspirations and isn't sure she can stay with a man who works in a video store in order to free up time for fruitless dream chasing. She once wanted to be Agatha Christie, but she traded in childhood fantasies for good old adult stability, and she thinks it's time Danny did, too. As the pair drift apart, she gives him six months to break into the music business before giving it up altogether, if he wants her in his life. The story doesn't range far from the High Fidelity template, but Wener paints a smart, funny picture of a man kicking and screaming his way into adulthood. Moreover, Wener crafts her tale of a guitar-playing Peter Pan with a kind eye that allows readers to see themselves in Danny, even as she takes an honest look at his self-absorption, irresponsibility and fears of growing old. Agent, Hannah Griffiths at Curtis Brown (U.K.). (Mar. 21) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.