Hairstyles of the Damned
by Joe Meno
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Read in December, 2007
(My full review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limits. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)
So a big confession before anything else -- that I went into this book really wanting to like author Joe Meno. And of course part of why I want to like him is because he's a Chicago writer, one of the more high-profile writers in Chicago right now in fact, who has won the prestigious Nelson Algren award in the past and wh...more
So a big confession before anything else -- that I went into this book really wanting to like author Joe Meno. And of course part of why I want to like him is because he's a Chicago writer, one of the more high-profile writers in Chicago right now in fact, who has won the prestigious Nelson Algren award in the past and wh...more
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Read in May, 2006
recommends it for:
Punk-rock misfits who don't give you the juicy details
I enjoyed reading this book, but it felt a little simplistic to me. Meno uses language throughout that is very typical of a teenager (like, I mean, maybe, etc) which is fine and doesn’t really bother me but I could see some people getting annoyed. It’s a definite voice technique and if you stripped that away, what would you have? But I like the way the chapters are very short and just move from scene to scene. And the kid is overall very likable. And there’s some good points to be made abo...more
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Read in October, 2007
I truly wanted to love this book because I read The Boy Detective Fails Again by Meno first. I adore that book--it's one of my favorites. This one was disappointing, to say the least.
The first 200 pages were filled with a lot of teenage-boy angst and the nothing that is a high schooler's life. Many of my favorite books are books within which nothing really happens, so this wouldn't have phased me if the "nothing" that happened actually seemed to be moving toward "som...more
The first 200 pages were filled with a lot of teenage-boy angst and the nothing that is a high schooler's life. Many of my favorite books are books within which nothing really happens, so this wouldn't have phased me if the "nothing" that happened actually seemed to be moving toward "som...more
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Read in January, 2008
Eh... Teens searching for themselves in early 90's Chicago. A weird blend of Nick Hornby ('High Fidelity': The art of making a mix tape) and a John Hughes film (teens in Chicago and "I'm in love with my best friend who has no clue about it.") The book centers on a metal head loser who, as his home and friends breakdown, discovers the Misfits and becomes a punk nihilist and skater. Some of the writing annoyed me (All punctuation and sentence structure be damned!) with long run on senten...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Punk Planet readers, music lovers, teens, disaffected youth!
Full disclosure: I just signed up Joe Meno's newest novel at Norton, so I'm totally biased.
A cult bestseller from 2004, HAIRSTYLES is an energetic gem of a book about adolescence: awkwardness, frustrated love, beer, shifting friendships, mixtapes, and music that rocks. Not only is it a spectacular package (look at that hair!) but the book is a fast, enjoyable read that wouldn't suffer from comparisons to previous tales of disaffected youth (Holden Caulfield, I'm looking at you.) Best of all...more
A cult bestseller from 2004, HAIRSTYLES is an energetic gem of a book about adolescence: awkwardness, frustrated love, beer, shifting friendships, mixtapes, and music that rocks. Not only is it a spectacular package (look at that hair!) but the book is a fast, enjoyable read that wouldn't suffer from comparisons to previous tales of disaffected youth (Holden Caulfield, I'm looking at you.) Best of all...more
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Read in July, 2006
recommends it for:
anyone from the Southside
This author must have been mingled in and out of our circle of friends and acquaintances in high school. I would have never thought that I would read a book that referenced Haunted Trails, Chicago Ridge Mall, or Palos Heights. I love this book because he is dead on with the culture of attending Catholic high school on the southside/near southwest suburbs of Chicago circa 1990. My only gripe is that I wish he had expanded the music discussed in the book. While I appreciate GNR and the Misfits, ...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone who liked punk rock, hated high school, or had trouble fitting in.
Some adults like to tell teenagers that they (the teens) are living through one of the best times of their lives. Most teens know better. This book is a corrective to such misinformation, reminding us of how bad adolesence was and of the transformative grace provided by threatening hairstyles, three chords on an electric guitar, and a good set of combat boots.
Meno gets the feel of the time and place. Reading it, I recalled all of the bad/awesome concerts we went to, how much my dad hated my ...more
Meno gets the feel of the time and place. Reading it, I recalled all of the bad/awesome concerts we went to, how much my dad hated my ...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of Fat Kid Rules the World
Brian Oswald is a high school junior. He's kind of a loser. He's in love with his punk best friend, Gretchen, who's in love with a 26-year-old White Power asshole.
Hairstyles of the Damned follows Brian's change from a loserish kid to a less-than-loserish kid throughout his year as a Catholic school junior. His relationships with other people change, and his music taste evolves---from being a serious hard rock fan (think AC/DC) to getting into some hardcore punk (think Misfits).
I don't k...more
Hairstyles of the Damned follows Brian's change from a loserish kid to a less-than-loserish kid throughout his year as a Catholic school junior. His relationships with other people change, and his music taste evolves---from being a serious hard rock fan (think AC/DC) to getting into some hardcore punk (think Misfits).
I don't k...more
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Read in March, 2007
It's hard to rate this book...Meno's relating of the teenage experience through his main character, Brian, is painful, poignant, and eerily accurrate. He does an excellent job incorporating the early 90s (and the accompanying music) into his story. However, I felt unresolved at the end of the book - perhaps it was my fault for reading it and assuming it would have some larger purpose. There wasn't really what I would call character growth or development - it was more just a snapshot of some ve...more
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Read in November, 2007
A fun little book about growing up and trying to be an individual by being punk rock, just like everybody else. In Joe Meno's interview with the HBC, he expressed surprise in discovering that this was considered a YA book, but I definitely can see it-- perhaps because it keeps the story fairly simple and doesn't go overboard with the preaching. It's certainly not a bi...more
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My favorite parts were when he talked abotu mix tapes. Those little sections were so wonderful and brought me back to life in the 90's. Remember when we were excited by "hidden tracks" in CDs? And I also appreciate the fact that MTV books, according to Joe in an NPR interview, wanted to publish this book...if he made it set in present day with present day bands the inspiraration for the character. Right, because someone's life has really been changed for the better by listening to Good...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
punks!
damn! i really like this book. a sort-of love story from the pov of a sort of metalhead-punk rock boy at a catholic boys school, the 'fat' girl he's in love with, his assorted friends getting high and drinking shitty beer in the basement, divorcing parents, and generally coming of age.
there are two moments that I especially love, his describing a girl as something like 'mean and sour looking, like she'd just make out with you because she's bored' and his feeling after going to his first small...more
there are two moments that I especially love, his describing a girl as something like 'mean and sour looking, like she'd just make out with you because she's bored' and his feeling after going to his first small...more
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Read in April, 2007
I started this book on my trip to Coachella last year, but never quite finished it... I would like to, but there is an element of "been there...and?" that comes into it for me. Set in the 90s - ending the punk scene and the edge of grunge, with every few chapters a mix-tape playlist the subject... which we can all relate to... music is what got us thru that time in our lives, but I find I don't relate well to the tortured main character and find him snivelling and weak... not bad, onl...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
1980s to early '90s metal heads
I read it quick and enjoyed a lot of it. It is more mall punk than my experience with punk, but i did have my own mall experiences 8th-9th grade that i found chronicled well. The stoners and the heads and the commercial metal were also common ground. Pretty fun to remember some of that stuff without having to relive it cuz adolescence really was hell. Meno does a good job of evoking the emotional picture of feeling on the verge of being part of something special while also feeling like an al...more
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Read in January, 2008
As a Chicagoan, I always want to like books by city natives that take place in our neighborhoods. Meno sets his story on the South Side in an Irish neighborhood. Hairstyles is about punk high school kids and angst. The text has lots of gimmick-y writing like playlists of mix tapes. I loved have serious flashbacks to the music of my high school days, but that wasn't enough to hold my interest. I just went and saw the movie Juno which I think captured a much more interesting young adult chara...more
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This book is real, almost too real. Perhaps one needs to have experienced white Chicago of the South Side to have this hit 'home' (in my case I do not hail from there but have experienced enough of it to know). Meno does a good job of depicting how vital rock'n'roll is to America's suburban, deserted youth.
And yet the main character grew away from me at the end. I got to disliking his obsession in much the same way, perhaps, as in the end I couldn't live with the movie Welcome To The Dollhou...more
And yet the main character grew away from me at the end. I got to disliking his obsession in much the same way, perhaps, as in the end I couldn't live with the movie Welcome To The Dollhou...more
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Read in January, 2005
The punk memoirs sub-genre gets it s own shelf, because I've read so damn many of them. And then I burn out on them for a while, and then someone writes a good one. This is a good one, though I have to stipulate that part of the reason I loved it is because it chronicles my old neighborhood, several of my high school haunts, and my brother's Catholic high school -- right down to the Christian Brother who used to carry scissors with him to cut off mullets in the hallway. Fun book.
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Read in November, 2007
Like a sort of high school "High Fidelity" (set in a Chicago high school in 1990), this book is one I more closely identified with than damn near anything I've ever read. I've lived much of this book, and the parts I haven't lived I either could have or desperately wanted to. A great coming-of-age tale, and probably the best distillation of the desperate search for teen identity that I've ever read. God, how I wish this had been out when I was 15....
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in February, 2008
Hairstyles of the Damned reminded me that writing doesn't have to be all picture perfect and polished to be interesting. Though I didn't absolutely love the book, it did take me back to being in high school in the early nineties and that painful search for identity that seems never ending, especially the highly crucial importance of the mix tape in developing friendships, displaying crushes and demonstrating affinities. And yeah, punk rock rules.
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Read in March, 2005
recommends it for:
Chicago folks, punk rockers, nostalgia fans
This book was another in a series of Chicago books I read for a book club. Not being a native Chicagoan I missed some of the subtle nuances mentioned that seemed to exemplify growing up in this town. I was able to identify with the tenn angst and the fun and frsutration that goes along with being a teenager. I found myself laughing out loud at many scenes and I will probably re-read it once I have lived in Chicago for a few more years.
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