Starburst by Robin Pilcher is a novel set during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, looking at a group of people from diverse walks of life who end up becoming flatmates while attending the Festival for various reasons.
Stardust contains examples of:
- Birds of a Feather: Rene Brownlow has always had a unique sense of humour, and is struck by the appeal of meeting someone just like her when she first talks with Mattie, another comedienne at the Festival. Rene and Mattie establish such a good bond that they eventually improvise a highly successful double act, which leads to them being invited to a similar festival in Boston once the Fringe is over.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Angelique is devastated when Albert, her chaperon and manager for three years, drunkenly tries to assault her and causes her to injure her hand (although she had been dealing with doubts about him for a while).
- Likewise, Jamie is left depressed when Martha, a waitress at a café he has been crushing on for the past few years, shows herself to be self-centred and uninterested in others when she dismisses a distressed Angelique.
- Easily Forgiven: To a point; Angelique recognises that she cannot work with Albert any more, but argues that his rough upbringing is the cause of his issues and so chooses not to press legal charges so long as he leaves her alone from now on.
- Fingore: Played with; Angelique is concerned after her accident that her hand is so injured that she will never be able to play the violin again. However, Jamie and a doctor are able to provide her with some simple techniques that help her regain feeling in her fingers a couple of weeks after the accident.
- Happily Adopted: Unofficially, anyway; Leonard Hartson affirms to others that he sees T.K. as the grandson he never had, and T.K. clearly reciprocates Leonard’s warm regard for him.
- Hope Spot: After her first week at the Festival, Rene is prepared to give up because she feels that nobody likes her shows and her accommodation is terrible, but her mood picks up when one of the Festival organisers is able to show her a recent positive review of her act and helps her find a better place to stay.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard:
- Leonard Hartson teaches T.K. some of his old filming tricks but dies of a prior heart condition due to the strain of making a film at his age.
- While Angelique’s original mentor is now a bedridden old woman, she defies this trope by coming to see Angelique’s final performance in the Festival, praising how far her former student has come and helping to make arrangements for Angelique to get a new, more considerate manager.
- Never My Fault: Albert continually frames his actions as "necessary" to "protect" Angelique rather than acknowledge that he's pushing her away because of his own desire to control her life.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: They aren’t a ‘team’ in the strictest sense as they mostly spend their time doing their own things, but the residents of Jamie’s flat for the Festival do interact with each other, and consist of a very eclectic group. Guests include a long-retired filmmaker making a final return to his old profession, a small-town comedienne making her first big splash, an ex-car-thief who’s been given a unique chance, and a major celebrity violinist in hiding after an unexpected attack.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While T.K. has a reputation as a car thief he’s trying to move on from, his parole officers are willing to recognise that he's a good person who just made some bad choices. Likewise, when he goes on a grieving joyride after Leonard’s death, the arresting officer is aware of the circumstances and affirms she won’t press charges.
- Self-Serving Memory: Albert Dussein eventually convinces himself that Angelique seduced him and then fought him off just to be a tease, rather than him deliberately attacking her after he got drunk.
- Uptown Girl: On paper, this appears to apply to Angelique and Jamie, considering that Angelique is a world-famous celebrity violinist from France while Jamie’s parents are Lothian farmers. However, Angelique’s father and brothers were all factory workers in France, and Angelique’s mother was a cleaner; Angelique’s rise to fame began with a lucky break when she accompanied her mother to work and her mother’s employer realised Angelique’s natural potential for the violin.
