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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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By 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.
By 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.
By 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.
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By Theoden Humphrey (Oregon, US)
He's right -- that IS a great name for a metal band. This book is in some ways my own story, since the main character is a kid who is exactly my age -- a junior in high school in 1990 -- who doesn't fit in, listens to heavy metal, is obsessed with girls but has no idea how to deal with them, and so on. It's not exactly my story, since this guy has much more trouble than I did in dealing with his problems, and he screws up a lot more than I did. Not that I did nothing wrong, but man, this guy does almost nothing right.
I did like the narration; it sounds a lot like me and my own thoughts at that age and time. I liked the music references, though they went a little bit more punk than I ever did. The conversations were perfect, absolutely letter perfect. I loved the D&D scene, since that was exactly like my own experience (except they have a mom who brings them their own favored drinks in their own individualized Star Wars glasses, which they call chalices, and my friends and I were never that lucky). I appreciated the way he described the character's feelings about girls, but not the way the character acted with girls; I was that horny, but never that crappy to girls. And I was crappy enough -- this guy goes way too far. It made it hard for me to like him, which made it hard for me to accept his redemption at the end. That went both ways, as well: his friends treat him like crap, and so the way they make up at the end was not good enough for me.
Overall it was wonderfully written and sometimes extremely fun to read, but a little bit too dark and depressing. I did, however, absolutely love the lists of best heavy metal band names and horror flicks, as well as the possible ninja movie plots. The magic camouflage nunchucks were priceless. HAIL SKELETOR!
By Dustin Deckard (Wichita, Kansas)
In short, this book is fantastic. As I don't have time for a long review, and I also don't think I would do the book justice by stretching this out, but I'll say this - you won't regret reading this at all.
Hairstyles of the Damned can be rude and unflinchingly in-your-face about things like obesity, racism, and even masturbation (Brian Oswald masturbates a lot), but the character development and grand-scheme story-arc shine through to reveal a heartfelt story of some teenagers that are just trying to fight their way to adulthood like everyone else.
I've read this book several times over the last couple of years, and now that I'm a bit older (19), it doesn't hit home as hard as it did when I was 17 (the age of Brian). Nevertheless, this book can be related to by readers of all ages, and is still quite applicable.
Give Joe Meno a shot and read this book - it's not much like his other two published books, so don't expect the same thing if you've read How the Hula Girl Sings. Hairstyles is written as extremely modern prose - it reads just like teenagers talk.
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