Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by michaelontheplanet
Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia by Tracey Thorn
3.0
Home thoughts from a broad: Tracey Thorn’s writing mirrors her singing: studied, understated, poised. Another Planet uses extracts from her childhood and adolescent diaries (“every triumph, every fight, under disco light”) to meditate on something very specific and finished: suburbia in England from roughly the late 1950s to the late 1990s. The claustrophobia, paranoia and competitiveness embodied in three television channels, the Ford Escort parked on the drive, a three-bed semi that’s nearly but not quite big enough for a growing family, Findus pancakes and halcyon prescriptions from Timothy Whites. It’s all gone now because the internet - a kid like Thorn today would simply use snapchat, insta and chat rooms to connect with others who feel the same mix of boredom and frustration at the limitations of being a girl and parental expectation in a place where excitement comprised her parents’ attendance at a ‘Caribbean night’ at the local golf club (“I don’t want to think about what that might have involved,” she observes tartly). Rather than lengthy saving up for day-long expeditions to Camden Lock and the King’s Road, or more prosaically, frequently disappointing trips to Hatfield, she’d simply go online and buy fast-fashion pseudo-punk gear from Boohoo.
If this sounds like an elongated sneer at lower middle class mores and the desires of people like Thorn’s parents to escape the grime and dangers of London in the immediate aftermath of 1945, it’s more loving, observational and understanding than that. The early passages are a little generic (others, such as Lindsey Hanley have written more comprehensively about suburban habits), but Another Planet takes flight in the second half which describes Audrey and Dennis and their reasons for coming to Brookmans Park, and how it trapped them. At the same time, as Thorn acknowledges, the suburbs played a huge part in the cultural explosions of the 60s, 70s and 80s, bringing forth talent such as Bowie, Siouxie and Boy George. Talent, it seems, needing conformity and safety to kick against.
I’m listening to Second Sight by the Marine Girls as I type and it encapsulates well what this is all about - small concerns, a fair amount of cosiness, but just enough of a dash of astringent to stop any danger of the saccharine or twee. I
If this sounds like an elongated sneer at lower middle class mores and the desires of people like Thorn’s parents to escape the grime and dangers of London in the immediate aftermath of 1945, it’s more loving, observational and understanding than that. The early passages are a little generic (others, such as Lindsey Hanley have written more comprehensively about suburban habits), but Another Planet takes flight in the second half which describes Audrey and Dennis and their reasons for coming to Brookmans Park, and how it trapped them. At the same time, as Thorn acknowledges, the suburbs played a huge part in the cultural explosions of the 60s, 70s and 80s, bringing forth talent such as Bowie, Siouxie and Boy George. Talent, it seems, needing conformity and safety to kick against.
I’m listening to Second Sight by the Marine Girls as I type and it encapsulates well what this is all about - small concerns, a fair amount of cosiness, but just enough of a dash of astringent to stop any danger of the saccharine or twee. I