Bibliographic Information
Publisher: Akashic Books/Punk Planet Books
Publication year: 2004
ISBN: 978-1888451702
Reader’s Annotation
Thoughtful, punk music loving Brian and his best friend Gretchen navigate friendships, relationships, and racial contention in 1990’s Chicago. Brian’s burgeoning crush on Gretchen as she falls in love with older Neo-Nazi Tony Degan causes a rift in their friendship that allow them both to explore other social scenes.
Plot Summary
Brian is a senior at a Catholic high school in Chicago, but would rather spend his time making punk rock playlists for his fictional band than go to class. His best friend Gretchen is dealing with the recent death of her mother by dyeing her hair shocking pink and lashing out with violence against the other girls at school. Brian keeps trying to figure out how to tell Gretchen he has fallen in love with her, but Gretchen is putting all her energy into catching the eye of Tony Degan, a skinhead in his 20’s who still hangs out with high schoolers. Their differing interests slowly lead to a schism between the long-time friends, allowing them both to branch out into other social circles. Gretchen starts dating Tony, and Brian makes friends with a burnout named Mike and falls in love with fellow music lover Dorie, who later reveals she was cheating on her boyfriend with Brian and breaks his heart. As conflicts between school clicks and town racial factions brew, Brian and Gretchen’s friendship stands a chance to be resurrected.
Critical Evaluation
Hairstyles of the Damned is on the fence between young adult and mainstream adult fiction, but an argument to keep it in the young adult genre can be adequately made because the majority of characters are high schoolers going through adolescent life changes. Meno perfectly captures this transition by showing the evolution of relationships between friends, romantic partners, and children with their parents. For example, Brian and Gretchen begin the novel as best friends with a routine that has not changed in years. As the story unfolds they take time away from one another to explore other relationships, which is common with lifelong friends as their worldview broadens in their teenage years. Brian’s relationship with his father also shifts as his parents separate, causing Brian to become more independent in his choices. These are circumstances in which average teenagers often find themselves, and Meno’s portrayal of the situations against the backdrop of the anti-establishment mindset of the 1990’s punk scene makes the characters even more relatable for the young reader.
Author Information
Joe Meno is a fiction writer and playwright who lives in Chicago. A winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Great Lakes Book Award, and a finalist for the Story Prize, he is the author of six novels, Office Girl, The Great Perhaps, The Boy Detective Fails, Hairstyles of the Damned, How the Hula Girl Sings, and Tender as Hellfire. His short story collections are Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir and Demons in the Spring. His short fiction has been published in the likes of McSweeney’s, One Story, Swink, LIT, TriQuarterly, Other Voices, Gulf Coast, and broadcast on NPR. He was a contributing editor to Punk Planet, the seminal underground arts and politics magazine. His non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times and Chicago Magazine.
Source: http://www.joemeno.com/bio
Genre
Fiction
Curriculum Ties
History/Pop Culture
Music Education
Sexual Education
Booktalking Ideas
Introduce the characters of Brian and Gretchen, making sure to highlight their differences in personality and their “opposites attract” style of friendship. Read a short passage with Brian being introspective, then a short passage of Gretchen acting on her Then give a rating from 1-5 and tell the audience why this is my rating, and take questions.
Reading Level/Interest Age
School Library Journal: Adult/High School
Challenging Issues
Language
Racial Issues and Stereotypes
Sexual Content and/or Nudity
Preparing for Potential Challenges
http://jeselynsminiyacollection.blogspot.com/p/preparing-for-potential-challenges.html
http://jeselynsminiyacollection.blogspot.com/p/preparing-for-specific-challenges_6.html
Why the Item Was Chosen
This book grabbed my interest from the very first sentence. “The other problem I had,” Brian laments to the reader on page 1, “was that I was falling in love with my best friend, Gretchen, who I thought the rest of the world considered fat” (Meno, 2004). This opener gives the reader clues to both Brian’s personality and Gretchen’s physical appearance before they even know it is Brian speaking. We also infer that Brian thinks he has problems, but is willing to confide in the reader. Most importantly, this gripping opening would interest a reluctant teenage reader. I believe they would at least read enough to find out why Brian considers falling in love with Gretchen a problem, at which point something else about the book may have caught their eye and compelled them to read further still. Books like Hairstyles of the Damned that make the reader want to continue turning pages are especially positive additions to young adult collections.
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