Review: Oh Yeah, Audrey!

Oh Yeah, Audrey! by Tucker Shaw has wild nightclubs, fabulous haute couture, sex, satire and betrayal. It’s also a classic morality tale. Not many 21^st-century writers can get away with that, but Shaw does – maybe because he knows exactly how strong the temptations are that he’s warning you to avoid.

Gemma Beasley, the narrator, is unhappy. Her mother has died, her father is overprotective, she has no friends at school, and like many teenage girls, she hates the way she looks. Her Audrey Hepburn blog is her only escape. That’s why she and her four fellow bloggers have planned a Breakfast at Tiffany’s-themed tour of New York, starting with a literal breakfast in front of the iconic jewelry store. And when five misfit teenagers from very different backgrounds run around the city unsupervised, there’s bound to be trouble.

The moral of the story, obviously, is that Gemma needs to stop pretending to be Hepburn and be herself instead. That being said, if you were a 16-year-old girl and a charming millionaire’s son bought you a gown from Hepburn’s private collection, could you say no? Honestly?

For a male author, Shaw is brilliant at describing the way a teenage girl feels about a glamorous female role model: despair that you’ll never live up to her, wistful hope that someday you might. If you only had the right dress, the right boyfriend, the right mannerisms – as if that had anything to do with real self-confidence.

As for the often repeated Tiffany’s quote about rich men giving Holly Golightly 50 dollars to go the powder room, it gathers unexpected force as the story goes on. No spoilers, but Gemma experiences the lowest points of Holly’s lifestyle as well as the highest.

By the way, if you don’t appreciate Hepburn, the amount of trivia will probably put you off. But if you understand what it’s like to be passionate about something, no matter how strange, you might forgive Gemma for squealing at the sight of a vintage gown.

It may not be realistic to have two gorgeous rich boys joining Gemma’s tour, even if one of them is gay. But realism isn’t the point. The point is to test Gemma’s integrity as far as it can go. The fact that all these party and restaurant scenes are dazzling to read about is just a bonus.

Special mention goes to Telly, the only Internet troll I’ve ever heard of who is also a well-rounded, likeable character. From the moment she interrupts Gemma’s and her friends’ raptures about Givenchy to talk about Hepburn’s work with UNICEF, I knew this book wasn’t going to be as shallow as it sounded.

Review: The Never-Ending Sacrifice (Star Trek: DS9)

A boy looks up. He sees a Cardassian's hand on his shoulder and knows that this is usually a prelude to a beating or, if he is fortunate enough, arrest. The boy knows how many disappeared during the Occupation of Bajor. So he does the one thing he can think of: he bites the Cardassian. Then the nightmare begins. 

He is ripped from the family that took him in as an orphan, clothed him, fed him, always loved him unconditionally. And no matter how earnest, how caring the commander of Deep Space 9 is, the boy knows this is all a horrible mistake. How can someone from Starfleet judge him by what he looks like, not by what he is? He prays to the Prophets; he is Bajoran. They all keep telling him that the test proves the large Cardassian man is his father, that the other Cardassian -- that oily gul -- took him away from his father. But the boy keeps telling them that he is Bajoran, he only wants to go home with his father. So they send Rugal home -- to Cardassia. 

On the homeworld of the Cardassian Union where sacrifice and devotion to the state are surpassed only by the government's need to keep its people in check, one very lonely boy discovers that if he doesn't resist, his life -- like those of so many others -- will be added to the tally of the never-ending sacrifice.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has one of the most complicated storylines of any TV series I know. It ran for seven seasons and involved, more or less, seven different political entities, with alliances that were constantly shifting back and forth. Today’s enemy might be tomorrow’s ally, or vice versa. It’s realistic, as any history student will tell you, but also somewhat confusing. 

That’s why The Never-Ending Sacrifice by Una McCormack is very helpful for putting all seven seasons in perspective.If you don’t know the series, you might not understand everything that’s going on, but there’s a glossary at the back of the book. Besides, the protagonist doesn’t understand it all either.

Rugal Pa’Dar is a one-off character from an episode called “Cardassians” in the second season of DS9. He was adopted by Bajorans, whose planet was once invaded by his own species, the Cardassians. Then his biological father found him and took him back. 

Needless to say, he’s got identity issues. He doesn’t fully belong to either culture. This makes him the perfect character through whom to tell the story of the Dominion War, because the war is being fought inside him as well as across the galaxy. This inner conflict almost tears him apart, but as he grows up, it also helps him make connections across all kinds of borders: class, species, sexuality and politics, to name a few.

Rugal is not much like the usual Star Trek heroes, brilliant diplomats, scientists and warriors who always save the day. He’s an ordinary person caught up in extraordinary circumstances, who mostly gets by on luck, resourcefulness, and a deep loyalty to his loved ones. He’s not trying to end the war or save his species. He just wants to go home, if he could only figure out where home is.  

McCormack does an excellent job of balancing the large and complicated plot lines of the original series with Rugal's individual story. He is clearly a product of a certain political landscape, but not a passive one. The older he gets, the more he refuses to let parents, commanding officers and governments make his choices for him. 

The Never-Ending Sacrifice is still a quintessential Star Trek story. It’s a story about war, and it does get very dark at times (Rugal’s time in the army is bleakly reminiscent of All Quiet On The Western Front), but more than that, it’s a story about love that transcends boundaries.