Continuing the theme of the suburbs in many ways the
chronicler of teenage life in the Northern area of Chicago was John Hughes.
Famous for The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller, Pretty in Pink and Sixteen
Candles, to name just a few. Large parts of his stories were set against the
backdrop of a suburban existence. His Shermer High Schools and million pound
home-lined streets in Home Alone were real places that meant audiences could
easily identify with them.
Among those was Jason Diamond who grew up in Chicago and
walked and drove around the streets Hughes filmed and used as backdrops.
Diamond's Search for John Hughes is a personal account of
his life and his search for a purpose. Things were going well until his parents
divorced and the subsequent troubles that led him to follow an ambition of
becoming a writer. His experiences through high school mix the comic at the
same time as the tragic and there is no doubt his life was a tough one.
Settling on the idea of writing a John Hughes biography
becomes his mission and shapes direction of his life taking him back into
Chicago and Hughes's world. In between stints working at coffee shops or on the
front desk at a kindergarten he managed
to start telling Hughes’ story. They seem to share so much in common but as he searches
the more he realises that apart from Chicago and the suburbs they don't share
that much. Hughes becomes more of an enigma the closer he gets to him and there
are moments that they appear to share the same air but never collide.
As the Hughes biography runs into problems what does emerge
is a tale of survival. Diamond becomes a Hughes character in many ways. In the
same way that Annie in Pretty in Pink is inspiring so is Diamond as he emerges
through years of difficulty with the writing career he deserved and the
happiness he was due.
Given my recent reading this is a welcome chance to read a
voice from the suburbs and hear what life was really like behind those front
doors and in those high schools across Chicago.
Hughes is a different subject and like many others I enjoy
his films and seek to escape into his portrayal of spaces where the losers come
through and win. I'd give anything to be able to go and spend some time in the
record shop in Pretty in Pink. It would take another post to go into depth on
his works. But in the context of this book Diamond is Hughesian. His life story
could be a gritty Hughes script, because the loser does come through. It's
touch and go most of the time but you root for him throughout. Just like John
Bender punching the air to Simple Mind's Don't you Forget about me at the end
of Breakfast Club the kid who has gone through hell has managed to come through
as one of the victors.
