Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Hairstyles of the Damned
    Unavailable
    Hairstyles of the Damned
    Unavailable
    Hairstyles of the Damned
    Ebook394 pages5 hours

    Hairstyles of the Damned

    By Joe Meno

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Included in MTV.com's "These 17 Music-Themed YA Books Could Be Your Life"

    A selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program.

    "Meno gives his proverbial coming-of-age tale a punk-rock edge, as seventeen-year-old Chicagoan Brian Oswald tries to land his first girlfriend...Meno ably explores Brian's emotional uncertainty and his poignant youthful search for meaning...His gabby, heartfelt, and utterly believable take on adolescence strikes a winning chord."
    --Publishers Weekly

    "A funny, hard-rocking first-person tale of teenage angst and discovery."
    --Booklist

    "Captures the loose, fun, recklessness of midwestern punk."
    --MTV.com

    "Captures both the sweetness and sting of adolescence with unflinching honesty."
    --Entertainment Weekly

    "Joe Meno writes with the energy, honesty, and emotional impact of the best punk rock. From the opening sentence to the very last word, Hairstyles of the Damned held me in his grip."
    --Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic, Chicago Sun-Times

    "The most authentic young voice since J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield...A darn good book."
    --Daily Southtown

    "Sensitive, well-observed, often laugh-out-loud funny...You won't regret a moment of the journey."
    --Chicago Tribune

    "Meno is a romantic at heart. Not the greeting card kind, or the Harlequin paperback version, but the type who thinks, deep down, that things matter, that art can change lives."
    --Elgin Courier News

    "Funny and charming and sad and real. The adults are sparingly yet poignantly drawn, especially the fathers, who slip through without saying much but make a profound impression."
    --Chicago Journal

    "Underneath his angst, Brian, the narrator of Hairstyles of the Damned, possesses a disarming sense of compassion which allows him to worm his way into the reader's heart. It is this simple contradiction that makes Meno's portrait of adolescence so convincing: He has dug up and displayed for us the secret paradox of the teenage years, the desire to belong pitted against the need for individuality--a constant clash of hate and love."
    --NewPages.com

    "Joe Meno knows Chicago's south side the way Jane Goodall knew chimps and apes--which is to say, he really knows it. He also knows about the early '90s, punk rock, and awkward adolescence. Best of all, he knows the value of entertainment. Hairstyles of the Damned is proof positive."
    --John McNally, author of The Book of Ralph

    "Filled with references to dozens of bands and mix-tape set lists, the book's heart and soul is driven by a teenager's life-changing discovery of punk's social and political message...Meno's alter ego, Brian Oswald, is a modern-day Holden Caulfield...It's a funny, sweet, and, at times, hard-hitting story with a punk vibe."
    --Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times

    "Meno's language is rhythmic and honest, expressing things proper English never could. And you've got to hand it to the author, who pulled off a very good trick: The book is punk rock. It's not just punk rock. It's not just about punk rock; it embodies the idea of punk rock; it embodies the idea of punk--it's pissed off at authority, it won't groom itself properly, and it irritates. Yet its rebellious spirit is inspiring and right on the mark."
    --SF Weekly

    Hairstyles of the Damned is the debut novel of our Punk Planet Books imprint, which originates from Punk Planet magazine.

    Hairstyles of the Damned is an honest, true-life depiction of growing up punk on Chicago's south side: a study in the demons of racial intolerance, Catholic school conformism, and class repression. It is the story of the riotous exploits of Brian, a high school burnout, and

    Editor's Note

    Paradise city…

    “Hairstyles of the Damned” is about punk music from the 1970s and ’80s, featuring teens in the early ’90s, written in the mid-00s. Set in Chicago’s South Side, Meno’s story explores the political power of music.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAkashic Books
    Release dateSep 1, 2004
    ISBN9781936070299
    Unavailable
    Hairstyles of the Damned
    Author

    Joe Meno

    Joe Meno is the author of over five novels such as The Great Perhaps,which was a winner of the Great Lakes Book Award for Fiction in 2009 and a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice. His short fiction has been published by the likes of McSweeney's, Witness and TriQuarterly. He is a professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

    Read more from Joe Meno

    Related to Hairstyles of the Damned

    Related ebooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Suicide Blonde at Twenty-Five

      Jun 7, 2017

      Suicide Blonde at Twenty-Five
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Last Of The South Girls

      Mar 18, 2021

      The Last Of The South Girls
      18 min read

    • Article

      I Was a Public Schooler

      Jun 9, 2020

      The application to Waverley Glen Academy required that I spend a day sitting in on freshman classes and mixing with the student body to see how well I’d fit in. I was twelve. Picture the gleaming wooden corridors, the Persian rugs, the monogrammed si

      14 min read

    • Article

      After Life

      Jan 5, 2023

      After Life
      14 min read

    • Article

      Festival

      Sep 15, 2018

      My husband, who loved festivals, who was a great fan of festivals, wanted to get to the square in time for the first band at eleven o’clock. From bed, the dog and I watched him dress. He tried on various T-shirts, declaring some of them too tight and

      13 min read

    • Article

      Too Much Seinfeld

      Nov 30, 2017

      Too Much Seinfeld
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Next Morning

      Mar 14, 2018

      The Next Morning
      10 min read

    • Article

      Olly Murs

      Apr 22, 2024

      Olly Murs
      5 min read

    • Article

      La Bohème

      Mar 1, 2022

      ON A SATURDAY or Sunday afternoon in the cold early months of 1988, I sat alone at a table for two in a Greenwich Village diner, twenty-four years old, hopelessly young, my notebook open in front of me. At the table next to mine were three people, al

      13 min read

    • Article

      Forever Changes

      Apr 25, 2018

      Forever Changes
      7 min read

    • Article

      Paddy Considine

      Apr 4, 2022

      Paddy Considine
      6 min read

    • Article

      Love, Lust, and More

      Feb 12, 2020

      Fleetwood Mac was singing She is dancing away from you now, and I squirmed in my seat. Kabir was rubbing my thigh as he drove, a gesture I once thought was reserved for me. Bah! I also used to think he only took naked selfies in bed with me, but then

      11 min read

    • Article

      Mara Wolford

      Dec 12, 2018

      Mara Wolford
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Very Pink Pride

      Jun 22, 2023

      A Very Pink Pride
      11 min read

    • Article

      Not That Story

      Oct 28, 2017

      Not That Story
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Same Story

      Mar 29, 2021

      FROM ISSUE #53: MISTAKES SUZANNE ROBERTS is the author of Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel (Bronze Medal Winner from the North American Travel Journalists Association for Best Travel Book) and the memoir Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Da

      13 min read

    • Article

      KT Tunstall

      Jan 11, 2021

      KT Tunstall
      5 min read

    • Article

      Midge Ure

      Jul 24, 2023

      Midge Ure
      6 min read

    • Article

      Andi Osho

      Jan 18, 2021

      Andi Osho
      5 min read

    • Article

      New Wave

      Dec 3, 2021

      New Wave
      10 min read

    Reviews for Hairstyles of the Damned

    3.5/5

    220 ratings16 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Great read. I loved the narrative style; it seemed like you were talking with one of your closest friends. It's an interesting look into the mind of a young punk scene boy.
    • 4/5
      Great read. I loved the narrative style; it seemed like you were talking with one of your closest friends. It's an interesting look into the mind of a young punk scene boy.
    • 3/5
      I read this some time back and remembered liking it very much. Because I like ruining good things, I suppose, I reread it and was extremely disappointed.The extremely male-centric gaze of the narrator permeates the entire novel, and I don't think it's just a literary device. Instead of getting the sense that I was reading a teenage male's narrative of his life, I felt like I was reading a narrative by a teenage male. The female characters are notably one-dimensonal and are excluded from coming to any enlightenments in the novel. There aren't many "good guys" in the novel, and that's understandable as a reflection of 1990s ennui. The female characters are often the locus of this angst, however.I like the mixtapes device for the nostalgia value, but Meno does not use it very well, structurally speaking. The lists/tapes are interspersed in a way that does not contribute to any narrative structure; they read more like the author's own personal notes about "songs I liked or hated." I don't ask for a happy ending, and Meno reflects 1990s teenage angst well. The nihilism of the ending is very bleak, though. If this is a bildungsroman, the pinnacle of evolution of character is realizing that (paging Holden Caulfield, who would have absolutely listened to punk) everything is phony.And that's the novel in a nutshell: Holden Caulfield in 1990s Chicago, without any Phoebe to provide a slim hope.
    • 4/5
      Something grabbed me about this novel. It was so different stylistically from The Boy Detective Fails that I was instantly intrigued. I couldn't believe the same author wrote both works.

      The story unfolds in a rambling fashion, saying a lot through teenage misdirection. Bryan Oswald, a junior in a Catholic high school, has fallen in love with his best friend, Gretchen. Over the course of his junior year, he watches as his parents' marriage dissolves, his friends go through relationship break-ups, and his school experiences racial tension. Bryan is struggling to make sense of it all -- his emotional reactions and his growing awareness of the facades people fashion to hide their true identities. He goes through his own identity shifts from heavy metal to punk, only to realize that it's a form of posturing without it being a true expression of who he really is.

      Bryan's high school days are very different from my own, but I could relate to his burgeoning maturity. He can't always articulate what he's feeling, or why he's feeling it, but you know these experiences are shaping him.

    • 3/5
      I couldn't believe my ears when I heard The Misfits coming from the RADIO! Sure enough, it was coming from NPR on a Saturday morning. Meno was promoting this book and the background soundtrack and interview was enough to propel me right to the library (15 minutes!) to check out this book. I read it all that day and found it entertaining while immersing me with nostalgia. The lyrics, the band names, the descriptions of the characters and "shows" in the basement brought back sweet memories. It's only sweet now, of course--those days were just as uncomfortable and confusing as Brian finds it. I could have liked him more if he weren't such a wimp and if he didn't go through the classic DEVO phase.
    • 4/5
      Great punk fiction! Accurate and strangely touching portrayal of the off-beat, screwed-up, and essentially normal '90's teenager. Contains language and sexuality.
    • 5/5
      Really great book. What i liked most about it is that i was able to relate to the book so much. I had many experiences like the main character and felt like i knew so many of the other characters.
    • 4/5
      A very Chicago book by a very Chicago author. Its really a book for the just past teen age than it is a YA book but I think it could work both ways. Seriously funny and brutally honest.
    • 4/5
      Hairstyles of the Damned is one of those books that you either love or you hate. Luckily for this review, I loved it. This book is full of regular teen angst set against a backdrop of the Chicago punk scene in the early 90's. Full of top 10 lists and mix-tapes, Joe Meno sets the triumphs and failures of his main character against a rockin' soundtrack. Full of heartache, longing, confusion, and sometimes acceptance and understanding, Hairstyles of the Damned can conjure up memories from our own angst filled youth no matter what the decade. I'd recommend this to all of my friends who have been there and know the pain and excitement of being a teen trying to find where they fit in.
    • 4/5
      I thought this was very cute, and VERY true to my memories of this era (okay, I predate this setting by a year or two, but I think it's close) ... high school and the teenagers that hate it, not having a clue about dating and the terrible Awkward that results, punk rock, driving around, mix tapes, hooking up, insufferable parents, basement parties, and hair. I especially got a kick out of the gang of annoying Minor Threat fans that would show up periodically, yet had nothing to do with the plot. That kind of sums up straight edge for me, actually. I thought it was sweet, funny, and angsty enough to appeal to teenagers without being too unbearable for non-teens.Grade: very strong B+Recommended: it's a good nostalgia read for those who lived through the late 80s/early 90s and made too many mix tapes.
    • 1/5
      I picked up this book because of the cover and the title, but I was very disappointed. It ended up being a slightly modernized version of Catcher in the Rye -- heavy on the swearing and filled with flashbacks and tangents, lacking much of an actual plot line.
    • 4/5
      This book had incredible high points and then points at which I literally skimmed through hoping it would get good again, which it did. I definitely believe it could have been shorter & tighter but I still enjoyed the experience and felt it was an unique viewpoint and a story I was glad I read.
    • 4/5
      Laugh out loud funny!
    • 4/5
      Great read. I loved the narrative style; it seemed like you were talking with one of your closest friends. It's an interesting look into the mind of a young punk scene boy.
    • 4/5
      Entertaining and likeable. The characters feel resoundingly true to life, unlike so many "written" teens. I greatly enjoyed reading this book, and ultimately found it charming (although I expect the author would gag at that word).
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno very much. I would have enjoyed it more with a serif font. Perhaps I am being shallow, but I don’t think so. Serif fonts are more readable in long printed text and with the san serif, I frequently lost my place on the the page. Coupled with the smaller than usual point size of the type and occasional use of handwriting fonts and the book design seemed to this reader like a sign that said “No Grown-ups allowed.”So, it was a struggle to read the book, but the book was well worth the struggle. Hairstyles of the Damned is the story of Brian Oswald, a seventeen year old boy growing up on the south side of Chicago in 1990 and 1991. Brian is very much a typical adolescent boy, trying to fit in and trying to stand out at the same time. The story is organized around the big events of the school years, homecoming and prom. Those events loom large because there will be pictures that will freeze him in time–forever to be judged by the merits or demerits of his date.Told in the first person, his voice is authentic and honest. By authentic, I mean he is repetitive at times, often banal, frequently shallow and of course, his chronic obsession with girls and sex is dwarfed by his obsession with himself. He rants, plots never-gonna-happen revenge, and imagines improbably fame as a musician. He thinks a lot but his ideas are inchoate–he does not yet dare to follow his ideas to the realizations that, when they come, might draw him into adulthood.Music is a huge part of the book. Brian is coming of the age during the era of the mixtape, when boys and girls expressed their inner selves by compiling a cassette tape that bared their souls. A mixtape could be a declaration of love, an explosion of rage, or a cri de couer. Metal and punk mixtapes are as much a part of the story as the people and often are the most articulate emotional expressions.While Brian is the main character in Hairstyles of the Damned, the secondary characters are vital and vivid, fully-realized characters as well. The story of Mike Madden for example, is a compelling view of parental malpractice. In a stereotypical midlife divorce, Mike’s father dumps his mother and his responsibilities, trading them in on a convertible and a young girlfriend. Mike’s Mom displaces her anger on her children, disavowing any responsibility for them and we see Mike go from an engaged and bright student to a sullen, violent drop out.Brian is worried the same may happen to him as his parents’ marriage is falling apart–his father’s despair and mother’s unhappiness are constant static in the background of his life. Meanwhile, he wants to get laid, have a girlfriend and be accepted. He’s in love with Gretchen, the pink-haired punk rock girl, but she’s fat and would no photograph well for Homecoming. Besides, she is interested in someone else.It’s all a muddle and mostly Brian muddles through, following, observing, but not seldom having agency in his own life, following his friends, claiming attributes, opinions and skills to fit in. Oh, it is all so very adolescent and really, that is the magic of this book. It does not feel like a novel written by an adult. It feels like we are prying in Brian’s diary, spying on the thoughts of a real adolescent.The book is eventful, but these are the events of ordinary life.The cataclysms are small and ordinary–divorce, fights, friendships forged and broken, relationships developed and cast aside–the stuff of high school. And of courses, for Brian who is in high school they matter so damn much.3pawsI recommend Hairstyles of the Damned, particularly to music loves and even more particularly to punk music lovers. Thoughtful curation of music is an art form and Brian (and Joe Mena) excel. I also think it succeeds in evoking authentic adolescent angst with empathy but not sentimentality. I enjoyed it, but I know I would have enjoyed it more with a kinder typeface.