I met Peter, another self published author, at Federation Square book market and we swapped novels. You can imagine my delight when I found we both had the legendary Chane Chane, the front man of Melbourne’s punk band La Femme in our books.Catch a Falling Star made me remember what it was like when you are at the point in life when school is finished and you are excited, trying on your new freedom. Before your soul is sucked dry from commuting to a crappy job, mortgages and adult responsibility. Before you realise that being grown up sucks.
The story is about Nicholas Walpole, a young Melbourne man that idolises David Bowie and wants to be a rock star. He moves into a derelict building in Lygon Street, Carlton with his mates and they form a punk band – Nicholas is ‘Nicky Nova’ their dark and manic front man. In between sneering at the trendies and cretin baiting the 'Marios and Marias' in Lygon Street, Nicholas is going through that tricky stage of life when you have to compete with all the other bright young things to get the hottest partner.Parts of the story were like a movie in my head. I could remember being in North Melbourne the day of the 1983 red dust storm and I was back in the Crystal Ballroom in St Kilda, the sweat dripping from the ceiling and the floor bouncing like a trampoline from the po-going punks, a time when I thought I would be young forever.
Catch a Falling Star is black, hilarious and clever – especially the bits where Nicky is creeping around at night like a commando and where he gets his warped, but funny revenge on his real and imagined enemies. And… never in a million years could I have guessed where the story would end. It was real and raw. Life isn’t like a Disney movie where everyone lives happily ever after.
Peter is a cartoonist and is currently the writer and illustrator of a weekly humorous football column for the Melbourne Times
Read more about Peter here
