David Cassidy - in books of fiction
David Cassidy is an important icon in popular culture. Many novels set in the 1970's onwards have mentioned David Cassidy.
The following is a list of novels that have mentioned David Cassidy.
| Title | Author | Date Published | Details/excerpts |
| 25 10-Minute Plays for Teens | Lawrence Harbison | 2014 | TAMMY: I'd faint if someone like David Cassidy would just look at me. Did you see him on the cover of Tiger Beat last week? It was 1972 Super Sweethearts Issue. He was wearing a leather jacket, sit ting on a motorcycle. He's so bitchin'. |
| 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous | Graeme Aitken | 2015 | 1. Pink was rather tame by comparison, though still a lot more interesting than Look and Learn. It was full of tips on all manner of important subjects such as how to sew tartan onto your clothes Bay City Rollers style, and competitions to win a date with David Cassidy. 2. The Pink magazine had disappeared from beside my bed. Babe had retrieved it while I was in the bath, which was a shame. I had wanted to look at the photo of David Cassidy, one more time, before I turned off the light and went to sleep. 3. He had David Cassidy’s exact smile. Dazzling. Dreamy. So full of joy. |
| A Soldier's Embrace: Stories | Nadine Gordimer | 1982 | But she’ll come right. She just needs someone, like, who won’t stand any crap from her. They drank two beers apiece and listened to David Cassidy records; —She plays them half the night—the whiskery moustache outlined a smile like a pleasant rat’s. |
| And You Are...? | Simon Astaire | 2009 | ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ asked her mum, already pouring one into a David Cassidy mug. ‘He’s my favourite,’ she said, and started to sing ‘How Can I Be Sure’. There was no question of sparing me her tuneless rendition, no sense that she should not be behaving frivolously when I was in mourning: her attitude was a relief. |
| Anita And Me | Meera Syai | 2007 | But Jackie was all about Boys; how to attract them, keep them, get rid of them (at least, the ugly ones), how to transform a boring denim mini-skirt into a wild disco outfit by using a few of your dad’s old ties and a tube of glitter, where highlighter actually goes, what Donny Osmond’s favourite colour was, what kind of chick attracted David Cassidy and why having spots was not a valid reason for suicide. |
| Autobiography of a Face | Lucy Grealy | 1994 | 1. Maybe I was wondering whether Colleen’s superiority at dodge ball would be compromised by her all-consuming crush on David Cassidy, or maybe some other social dilemma of prepubescence ruled that day’s game. 2. I devoted most of the time to a silly conversation about David Cassidy with the girl in the bed across from me |
| Belonging | Sameem Ali | 2008 | My bedroom had three single beds and was decorated with posters of David Cassidy and the Bay City Rollers - my favourite was the singer, Les McKeown. |
| Beware the Cuckoo | Julie Newman | 2017 | They flicked through the rest of the magazine; reading an interview with Flintlock and gazing longingly at posters of David Cassidy and David Essex. They began discussing which David was the best, but their debate was interrupted by the doorbell. |
| Blye, Private Eye | Nicholas Pleggi | 1976 | To her left was a silver Christmas tree. Eddie Arnold records were stacked in a wire metal record case, as was a $4.79 bargain David Cassidy record. |
| Breakfast on Pluto | Pat McCabe | 1999 | After Captain America’s I got my hair done and Irwin said I was the spit of David Cassidy. I have to say that I was flattered! |
| Brothers, Boyfriends, and Other Criminal Minds | April Lurie | 2007 | For the rest of the afternoon Brandi and I played Gin rummy, and when we got sick of that we flipped through my old Tiger Beat magazines, laughing at pictures of Donny Osmond and David Cassidy |
| Confessions of a Night Nurse | Rosie Dixon | 1974 | Natalie’s blood is colder than an eskimo’s inside leg measurement and I can’t remember her crying since Mum put her David Cassidy T-shirt in the washing machine — he came out looking like Wee Georgie Wood. |
| Debbie Preston, Teenage Reporter In The Case Of The Gypsy's Warning | Sylvia Resnick | 1972 | Debbie Preston meets David Cassidy, the Osmonds and others and solves a mystery. |
| Eat the Document | Dana Spiotta | 2006 | Josh picked up a reissue of the Silver Surfer comic book from a table piled with puka-shell necklaces just like David Cassidy used to wear in the '70s. He walked past the selection of graphic novellas to Miranda, who was looking at an earth-art display. A huge poster of Smithson's Spiral Jetty hung overhead, and underneath were books on contemporary environmental art and land art of the '70s. There was a DVD on Andrew Goldsworthy, and leaf-patterned bike messenger bags as well as vintage Greenpeace buttons and some vinyl Jackson Browne records in plastic sleeves." |
| Everything I Never Told You | Celeste NG | 2014 | At dinnertime, while she spun stories for her mother about her grades and her extra credit project, or for her father about Shelley’s new perm or Pam’s obsession with David Cassidy, Nath watched her—half-angry, half-afraid as if he wanted to say something but didn't know how. |
| Fever Pitch | Nick Hornby | 1994 | Then suddenly, I woke up in the morning and all that had changed. How could my sister not hear that David Cassidy was not in the same class as Black Sabbath? |
| Firefly Lane | Kristin Hannah | 2009 | 1. It was their way of saying that a friendship begun at fourteen, back when David Cassidy was groovy and a song could make you cry, would last forever. 2. She'd cracked Kate up with her own made-up dialogue that had David Cassidy hot for his TV sister. 3. "Since David Cassidy was groovy." 4. Or with Tully, sitting on the muddy banks of the Pilchuck River, talking about David Cassidy's newest album and sharing a bag of Pop Rocks. 5.An autographed picture of David Cassidy that said, Kiss me, and an iPod with headphones that said, Play me and dance. 6. I have met great women from all over the country — many of whom remember dancing to ABBA and dreaming about David Cassidy and drinking Boone's Farm. |
| Fly Away | Kristin Hannah | 2014 | 1. Yeah, Tully said quietly. “But here's the thing, kiddo. Your mom asked me to watch out for you and that's what I'm going to do. I was her best friend from the David Cassidy years to the second George Bush years. She's the voice in my head. And I know what she would say now. 2. The way she says it breaks my resolve. | slowly do as she asks, but even before I see the poster of David Cassidy and hear Elton John |
| For Love and Glory | Janet MacLeod Trotter | 2002 | She and Brenda loved Rod Stewart, whereas Marilyn’s choice of music - the Osmonds and David Cassidy - was to be avoided at all costs. |
| Fourplay | Jane Moore | 2001 | "Point taken," said Jo, gathering up an armful of clothes and stuffing them into a trash bag. She knew Rosie was right, but her natural urge was to hoard objects from her past as if they were the very glue that held her life together. She had every letter and postcard ever written to her, every school report, and clothes dating back to the heyday of David Cassidy. No wonder minimalism isn't my design specialty, she thought as she watched Rosie shriek with laughter at the discovery of a frayed Doctor Who-style scarf." |
| Go, Mutants!: A Novel | Larry Doyle | 2010 | Sandra jane lay on crimson sateen among heart pillows in her fluffy pink room, her upper lip thick with Estroglam depilatory cream, reading the latest node of Normal Teen> with interesting articles on "Fitting In Without Sticking Out" and "50 Ways to Keep a Boy," including one involving her index finger that sounded very doable. On the orb, David Cassidy sang: How can I be sure, In a world that's constantly changing! |
| Gone Too Far | Suzanne Brockmann | 2003 | He looked exhausted. His clothes were rumpled and looked slept in, and, with his hat off, she could see that his hair really was as long and shaggy as she'd thought. Thick and brown, it was sun streaked and wavy as it touched his shoulders. It was faintly reminiscent of the style so beloved by teeny-boppers in the early 1970s. He looked like he might've been trying to pass as David Cassidy's bigger, meaner, Navy SEAL brother." |
| Goodnight Tweetheart | Teresa Medeiros | 2010 | Abby_Donovan: Oh, I don't think so. That would be discounting the seminal influence on the pop/rock genre of David Cassidy's "I Think I Love You." "MarkBaynard: Tell her Roger Daltrey can still kick David Cassidy's ass. Tell her she's prettier than Jen or Angelina. Tell her she was the love of my life |
| Holly Blue | Yianoulla Nicola | 2007 | I blurted out, ‘Do you like David Cassidy?” Cringing inwardly, I struggled to comprehend how I could have just said something so totally inane. ‘David who?’ Jonathan shrugged, confused. ‘David Cassidy. You know, The Partridge Family, “I think I love you’, I sang, out of tune. ‘Oh yes! I remember The Partridge Family. |
| Husband Wanted - Fast! | Rebecca Daniels | 2001 | "Something wrong?’’ Olivia sputtered. "You mean other than the fact that I’ve been trying to discuss something important with you and all you seem interested in is some silly David Cassidy concert I went to a lifetime ago.”’ |
| I'm Right Here | Tony Rauch | 1998 | As for me, well, bury me in one of those red velvet suits with the big silky ruffles. Bury me with an 8" x 10" photo of David Cassidy. Or bury me in my Travis “Machine Gun” Grant's basketball uniform—the number 42.. |
| Innocent Party | Celia Dale | 1973 | It was her own small bed, too small for Dad, he would look funny in it. Cliff and David Cassidy and Alan Ball still grinned down at her, from the walls, and Twiggy over the chest of drawers and the two Persian kittens in a boot and Princess Anne on a horse, her knicknacks and ornaments still here, her clothes still in the cupboard. |
| I Think I Love You | Allison Pearson | 2010 | In seventies south Wales, 13-year-old Petra is skinny, shy and struggling to blossom in the shadow of her beautiful but cheerless German mother. Though she has yet to be kissed by a real boy, she knows all about love because, like 30 million other teenage girls, including her best friend, Sharon, she is besotted with the singer David Cassidy. In the pink sanctuary of Sharon's bedroom, the girls study their bible, The Essential David Cassidy Magazine, convinced that their encyclopedic knowledge of his life will make them the perfect Mrs Cassidy. In this book the nature of teenage girls' fantasies about love is explored with insight, both from the perspectives of the fans who worship an idol they know is unobtainable and from the more objective journalistic position Bill finds himself in as he reluctantly stokes the flames of their obsession. |
| Kiss Chase | Fiona Walker | 1995 | You told me last week that she was a toffee-nosed arriviste who'd once drawn Hitler moustaches all over your David Cassidy posters and told your brothers you were having a lesbian affair with the Latin mistress.’ |
| Living Vicariously | Various | 2003 | 1. “It depends,” Maggie said. “How ‘bout tickets to see that cute David Cassidy at the Garden?” 2. Johnny lingered over a bin containing stills of David Cassidy while Ron finished waiting on a customer. 3. With a big grin on his face, he went back to the David Cassidy bin and picked three stills that he did not have in his collection. |
| Lola's Secret | Monica McInerney | 2012 | 1. Another of the shop volunteers hadn’t spoken to her sister in more than thirty years, since an argument over a damaged David Cassidy record, of all things. 2. Anna had been thirteen, Bett eleven, and Carrie eight. Bett could even remember the songs: ‘Song Sung Blue’, ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ and a David Cassidy pop song. |
| Miss Match | Leslie Carroll | 2001 | Kathryn, meanwhile, was checking out the other patrons. Walker followed her gaze. "Who does that guy think he is, David Cassidy?" he quipped, looking at the mane of chestnut hair on a gentleman sitting alone with his drink." |
| New Boy | Tracy Chevalier | 2017 | ….like a blond David Cassidy from The Partridge Family; Sisi had kept a poster of him on her wall for a few years, before replacing it with one of Malcolm X. |
| No Bones | Anna Burns | 2002 | She knew he’d been leaving; her suitcase alone all this time because he thought it was full of stupid pictures of Donny Osmond and David Cassidy. She did, in fact, have pictures of Donny Osmond and David Cassidy but they were in her Janet and John book downstairs. |
| On Mystic Lake | Kristin Hannah | 1999 | She had spent much of her youth in that chair, gazing out at the endless night, clipping photographs of celebrities from a Teen Beat magazine, writing gushy fan letters to Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy, dreaming of the man she would someday wed. |
| Satisfaction | Gillian Greenwood | 2006 | "A hospital at first, I think. I didn't much care at the time," said Amy. "Things were so much better after Jane arrived. She was wonderful. It felt like a sort of golden age, and it lasted for about four months. She opened up things in some way, and people began to come and visit us, friends from school. She'd play music, quite loudly, Frank Sinatra and the Beatles, and whatever we were keen on, David Cassidy probably, and there were always flowers, I remember, and wonderful food."" |
| Self Storage | Gayle Brandeis | 2007 | I put her 2T shorts and sippy cup and paper towel rack and Christmas plate and David Cassidy eight-track into a wrinkled plastic bag from Stater Brothers. "If I told you," I said, "I'd have to kill you."" |
| Sex Education | Janni Visman | 2003 | She whispers that she thinks Gabriel isn’t as handsome as David Cassidy. |
| Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel | S.G. Browne | 2012 | "And after taking care of business with David Cassidy, my reality has a yearning for some hanky-panky. David Cassidy is standing naked in front of a full-length mirror singing "I Think I Love You." At least I think it's David Cassidy. His head is shaved, along with most of the rest of his body—his hair in a pile on the hardwood floor at his feet. He still has his pubic hair and his eyebrows, but he removes the eyebrows in the time it takes me to uncap the bottles of Coors." |
| Tennison | Lunda La Plante | 2016 | 1. 'Turn that Cassidy wanker off,’ John said. 2. Her mind turned to her sister’s wedding, but this annoyed her as she wasn’t looking forward to it, didn’t relish being a bridesmaid and feared the whole day would be a hideous experience. She turned her radio back on and ironically David Cassidy was singing his hit single ‘How Can I Be Sure’. |
| The ABCs of Love | Sarah Salway | 2004 | "Did I like David Cassidy or Donny Osmond? he asked, because in his experience, girls usually went for one or the other. Although, of course, he went on, his eyes still shut, if a girl was really cool, she'd go for Bryan Ferry. Kate had liked . . ." |
| The Alphabet Sisters | Monica McInerney | 2004 | Bett tugged self-consciously at that same head of curls, now at least slightly less mad. Lola had sent her that photo, too. It had arrived with just a scrawled note, subtle as ever. "Remember the good times with your sisters as well." It had been taken at a country show in outback South Australia more than twenty years previously, at one of the Alphabet Sisters' earliest singing performances. Anna had been thirteen, Bett eleven, and Carrie eight. Bett could even remember the songs: "Song Sung Blue," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and a David Cassidy pop song. Just minutes after the photo had been taken, a fly had buzzed its way straight into Anna's mouth. Her shocked expression and sudden squawk had made Bett and Carrie laugh so much both of them had fallen off the small stage, a wide plank of wood balanced on eight milk crates. The memory could still make Bett laugh." |
| The Bachman Books: Four Novels | Stephen King | 1986 | She probably still cried and threw tantrums and locked herself in the bathroom, probably still listened to Beatles records and had a picture of David Cassidy, who was big that year, tucked into the comer of her vanity mirror, but none of that showed. |
| The Bird Eater | Ania Ahlbom | 2014 | Aaron and Cheri stood in awkward silence as David Cassidy sang a song about love. 2. Deciding to take his doc’s advice, Aaron stripped down to his briefs and T-shirt, brushed his teeth, and slid into bed to watch David Cassidy gee-golly-gosh his way from one scene to the next |
| The Distant Echo | Val McDermid | 2003 | He finished his coffee and stood up. 'I know. I still think of you as a silly wee lassie dreaming of David Cassidy.' |
| The Fortune Catcher | Susanne Pari | 1999 | The room still looks the same today. There was a time, before Roberto, when she yearned to fill that room with down comforters and pillows, posters of The Beatles and David Cassidy, English and French books about romance and intrigue, bright yellow curtains, and a thick woolen carpet. |
| The Heat is On | Sarah Holland | 1989 | Her crush on Robert had been childish. Like a teenager kissing a poster of David Bowie before she went to sleep. Hugging a record of David Cassidy close to her heart and singing, 'How Can I Be Sure?' along with his soft adolescent voice. |
| The Ice Storm | Rick Moody | 1994 | 1. She knew the kids who hung out in the Central Park band shell; she knew Adam Purple, the guy who shoveled horse shit in the park for his garden downtown; she knew David Cassidy, whose father lived in the building. 2. On the walls: posters of David Cassidy, the Dark Side of the Moon record sleeve, a peace symbol. Bumper sticker — Impeach Nixon — on the back of the door. |
| The Keeper of Lost Things | Ruth Hogan | 2017 | 1. But Susan had found herself a boyfriend, a David Cassidy doppelganger who worked in Woolworths, and he had apparently planned a surprise for her birthday. 2. Many years later, not long after they met, Anthony and Therese were having lunch in a wine bar in Covent Garden that favoured deco over Donny Osmond and David Cassidy |
| The Lovely Bones | Alice Sebold | 2002 | In this novel, a teenage girl who is murdered, watches her family from heaven. There is a mention of a David Cassidy button pinned inside a bag. The film of this book shows a picture of David in her school locker. |
| The Stitched with Love Collection, 9 Historical Courtships of Lives Pieced Together with Seamless Love | Tracey Bateman | 2013 | Pamela Tracy started writing at a very young age (a series of romances, all with David Cassidy as the hero. |
| The Water Will Hold You | Lindsey Crittenden | 2007 | One lazy afternoon in my tenth year, I lay on my two-tone pink shag rug, reading. Blake was in the Jungle with Bob, his best friend. Mom and Dad were in their bedroom, napping as they always did on weekend afternoons. David Cassidy sang from my turntable, over and over, "I think I love you."" |
| Vanity Insanity | Mary Kay Leatherman | 2013 | The stain of those dirty tears spilled over the front of her favorite David Cassidy T-shirt. |
| Watch Me Disappear | Jill Dawson | 2007 | A giant sunny David Cassidy smiles down at us, clean and friendly, fingers cocked in the pockets of his jeans. |
| Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers | Lois-Ann Yamanaka | 2006 | 1. Jerry and me love David Cassidy. 2. We figuring who Donny Osmond or David Cassidy would like better. Jerry or me. 3. Today, Jerry says that he thinks that David C. would rather have someone skinny. I say, “So what you trying for say, Jerry? So what if you skinny? Who cares? David C. probably want one girl, not one boy. And one girl but so what? David C. probably wants one haole girl anyway, not two Japs like us. And for sure not one boy, a guy, get it, Jere, you’re one boy and David don’t want you.” |
| Winter Garden | Kristin Hannah | 2010 | “Yeah? Well, David Cassidy wrote me a letter.” |
| Wish Club | Kim Strickland | 2007 | "His eyes continued to scan her studio, checking it out. He was wearing a pookah-shell necklace. Kids, Jill thought. She wondered if he'd ever heard of David Cassidy." |
Non-fiction books about David Cassidy or mentioning David
A comprehensive list of non-fiction books is now on David's website.
If you know of any more to add to this list, please email us.
