| Hairstyles of the Damned (Punk Planet Books) |  | Author: Joe Meno
Publisher: Akashic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Seller: bay-city-books
Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 515,738
Media: Paperback
Pages: 278
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 188845170X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781888451702
ASIN: 188845170X
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Hairstyles of the Damned is an honest and affectionate depiction of wanting to belong, but never quite belonging. Joe Meno's pitch-perfect prose illuminates the tumultuous realities of American adolescence, the disintegration of the modern family, and the way a mix-tape can change a person's life. Following the riotous exploits of Brian, a Catholic school malcontent, and his best friend Gretchen, a punk rock girl fond of brawling, this work of fiction unflinchingly pursues the truth in discovering what it means to develop your own identity.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 45
 Okay read, but "issues" overload August 31, 2010
Joy
I was really excited to read "Hairstyles of the Damned", but, as you can tell from my rating, I was a little bit disappointed.
Even though the language was very real, every once in a while Meno would try to write a section of the story in an 'artistic' manner. Like telling a story, sentence by sentence, backwards.
It was an interesting idea, but I really wasn't impressed.
He also tried to include quite a few topics (divorce, race, puppy love, sex, puberty, death in the family, music, prejudice, etc.), which works for some novels, but this one just couldn't decide what it was ABOUT. Was it about a first love? Was it about the self-discovery that accompanies the discovery of new music? Was it about how you should stand up for those who can't defend themselves? Yes, all of those things.
They're all stressed equally.
Maybe that's the point? These things all effect him equally, influencing Brian Oswald as he grows up.
So if a somewhat original, somewhat not, novel about growing up in Chicago in the 90s sounds like a good time to you, borrow it from the library first.
 Teenage angst with a punk twist... March 1, 2010
Larry Hoffer (Fairfax, VA)
I really enjoyed this book. If you've ever felt like you didn't fit in and/or struggled to find out who you are, then this book is for you. Some reviewers have called it a punk "Catcher in the Rye," but I don't think that's quite accurate.
Brian Oswald is a high school student at an all-boys Catholic school. His parents' marriage is falling apart, he hasn't had much luck with girls and he finds himself falling for his best friend, Gretchen, who iis very fond of beating people up. Brian struggles to fit in, struggles to make friends, struggles with his feelings for Gretchen and about himself, and finally realizes who he is and what makes him happy. The whole book is told alongside the music of The Smiths, The Misfits, The Dead Kennedys, etc., so it's almost like it has its own soundtrack. Really enjoyable story and even a bit moving.
 Read it. Then read some more. June 2, 2009
Frank Maciel
Joe Meno has become my writer. I think every reader has at least one-- that if the author wrote bathroom stall graffitti, they'd want to take a look at it. Does graffitti have 2 F's AND 2 T's? Hmm. Anyway, Hairstyles was the second Joe Meno book I read, the first being The Boy Detective Fails. I've been working my way through his stuff ever since. I think Hairstyles, in addition to being pretty brilliant has at least a little bit of everyone's high school experience wrapped up in it. Read it. Then read some more.
Enjoyable look back at confused, delusional and invincible youth March 25, 2009
A. Whitney (Silicon Valley, CA USA)
Being young has some great advantages: passion, belief in ideals and the ability to be inspired by heroes. Being young has lots of disadvantages: powerlessness, confusion, awkwardness, and a blinding need to belong. All of these things are captured in "Hairstyles" and not in an overly nostalgic or veneered way. Protagonist Brian grapples with his budding sexuality, his attraction to a girl who on the surface isn't what society deems desirable, his developing love of music, a need to belong, and the realization that life doesn't run smoothly for him, is friends or his family. It's complicated, and he's just discovering how that can feel.
The book feels real whether or not it was our youthful reality. I found it quite enjoyable. The musical component could also be quite inspirational for someone who was too young to experience it at the time.
Sounds like Teenage Misery January 6, 2009
Nina Sankovitch
January 6, 2009
In Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, the damned are the teenagers and the hairstyles are just one more teen effort to define and find themselves. Meno's teens live in the very White, working class, and Catholic southside neighborhoods of Chicago. Meno knows this area well; he must, because he invokes it perfectly and genuinely for us, the rows of small brick houses, the squares of lawn, the parochial schools, and the malls and parking lots where teenage socializing goes on, and the basement parties where teenage sexuality is explored. His teens are set loose with only the slimmest threads of adult supervision or affection, to figure out for themselves how to act, think, participate in society, and stand up for their own place in the world.
Music plays a large role in this book (music was also a character in On Chesil Beach) because it delivers the message to the teenage characters that someone, somewhere, understands them. Music is the one medium through which the teens feel normal about the hormones raging through their systems; through the music they find a degree of self-acceptance and hang onto the slightest of self-affirmations as they negotiate their self-image, their role in the lives around them, and their place in a community of abusive teens (self-abusing and of abusing of others, verbally and physically) and largely absent adults. The lyrics of punk groups, no waves, Bowie, hard rock, and even Chet Baker play a role in this book. Lyrics are used by the characters to substitute for their own words, a better representation of what they are feeling that is also less risky than just trying to say it themselves. Mix-tapes (collections of songs recorded for a specific person) are the valentines and love letters, and also the SOS in the bottle.
But it is not only the lyrics that these kids hang onto as if for dear life: the thumping and thrashing of the music is the catharsis for their moods and their desires, providing both an outlet and a mirror for what is up with them.
Brian goes on a mission at one point to steal all the bad music from the parked cars at the mall and deliver their owners from the evils of Crystal Gayle, Kenny Loggins, New Kids on the Block, and the soundtrack for Dirty Dancing: "[w]e seriously thought what we were doing would somehow save the world because it was so easy to understand that bad music actually made people bad." Sounds like a twist on "great good comes from reading great books." Like a good book, good music helps us breach differences and takes us to a place of understanding and compassion. Who has not been swayed by music? Okay, not always with good results but music is the most effective medium for expressing common hopes and desires. And especially for teens, struggling to understand and express themselves, music is the translator, the spokesperson, and the guru. The kids in the book choose their genre (punk, rock, pop) and their identity takes off from there.
In the end, reaching a level of maturity we weren't sure he could get to, Brian realizes that his chosen music is only a part of his self-expression; music is more who he is than his haircuts and his choice of clothes, but it is less that his own words and actions. He needs to stand up for himself now, express himself, and rely on the music for back up.
FOR more, go to www.readallday.org
Showing reviews 1-5 of 45
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