false 59334533 42841 6416929 1427624992 9781427624994 13 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6416929-banned-for-life 4.79 19
A mystery wrapped in a love letter to overlooked American rebels, “Banned for Life” has already amassed a cult following in L.A.’s underground music scene, where D. R. Haney has long been a fixture.



“Banned For Life is about punk rock? Sure, just like Moby-Dick is about whales. This is the thrilling story of Jason Maddox, 80s musician turned 90s screenwriter, who embarks on an Ahab-like quest of his own—although the blubbery object of his fascination is a vanished punk-poet. Like Melville, D.R. Haney has created a world so rich in detail, so authentic, so damned cool, you want to take up a harpoon—or, in this case, a guitar—and join the fray. Banned For Life is literary fiction at its best—funny, heartbreaking, hopeful, and every bit as inspiring as the punk music it extols.”

—Greg Olear, author of "Totally Killer"


"Flashing back from the particular flavor of boredom that was late 1990s Los Angeles, "Banned for Life" captures the inchoate brilliance of punk - the 20th century's last social movement - better than any account I've ever read. It's a eulogy to dead friends and those who died trying to transform personal pain into something extraordinary that happens outside the body. It's also pitch-perfect, laugh-out-loud funny and heartrendingly sad. Haney remains faithful to the spookily truthful insights of adolescence while keeping his eye on the big picture. By turns broadly epic and embarrassingly specific, "Banned for Life" is one of those rare books that tells the story of a generation."

- Chris Kraus
Author of "I Love Dick", "Aliens & Anorexia", "Torpor"


"D. R.’s book takes you down all the roads of the seventies and eighties that most people never knew existed. Those who traveled those roads will recognize the tribulations of youth and essence of that time that D. R. captures perfectly. Those that weren't will regret that they never dared. In Jason, D. R.’s lead character, all of us who dared, or, more likely, had no choice but to live on the outside, will see ourselves, not only in light but in shadow. Which in these days of pat, one-dimensional characterizations is not just a relief but something profound."

- Sab Grey
Author of "Skinhead Army" and "Hated and Proud"


"At a party, on a couch, you find yourself next to a man who has survived himself. Twenty-six letters have been arranged and rearranged to describe the goings-on and happenings he has weathered. As he turns away, the pages fall together at your feet, and if you are smart, YOU GRAB IT, TUCK IT UNDER YOUR COAT, AND READ. This is a story that belongs to everyone, but is our best kept secret."

- Jennifer Lynch
Author of "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer"


""Banned for Life" is a rock ‘n’ roll novel that truly rocks. Not merely is the novel obsessed with hard rock music—it sounds like rock as you read it. Rock music pulses and pounds on every page. Jason, the book’s non-hero, is a disaffected filmmaker and musician who wanders through Los Angeles at the end of the twentieth century only to find himself in Kostunica’s Serbia at the beginning of the twenty-first. An anti-Bildungsroman, Banned for Life takes you on a journey without a terminal point, an in-finite journey in which the road is more vital than the destination. You watch a life unfold across the page; you feel that you are experiencing Jason’s life with him from the inside."

- Joseph Suglia
Author of "Watch Out"


"With his character Peewee, Haney has extracted probably one of the most memorable characters in all of literature. He’s that good."

- Bryan Price
Author of The "First Book of You"


"D. R. Haney is more punk rock than me!"

- George Tabb
Author of "Surfing Armaggedon"

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