by Regina Barry

Looking back on high school from the vantage point of adulthood can provoke a range of emotions: nostalgia, regret, embarrassment.  How often, though, do we simply gloss over our teenage selves as hopelessly immature and naïve, not giving ourselves credit for the moments along the way where we transitioned from children to adults?  

 

Hairstyles of the Damned is a fictional memoir of Brian Oswald, a Catholic school rebel, tracing how his life and identity transform between the Octobers of his junior and senior years.  Set in the early 1990s, Brian's attention begins with the issues that are hallmarks of adolescence-- unsteady forays into romance, clashes between cliques—which give way to his observations on weightier topics, such as the dissolution of his parents' marriage, or the simmering racial tension in his hometown of Chicago.

 

Perhaps it is a cliché to compare novels with adolescent protagonists to Catcher in the Rye, but Hairstyles of the Damned is an undeniable descendant of J.D. Salinger's famous novel.  Meno's tone is unswerving in its naturalism: even in its most profound moments, protagonist Brian Oswald peppers his narration with “likes” and “I guess”es that form a unique rhythm, describing his world with a candid simplicity that conveys a real sense of truth, even when his actions and insights are less than heroic-- and that is often the case.  Meno can not be criticized for creating teenage characters that are unrealistic, and a reader might be tempted to close the book.  Scratching the surface is, however, well worth it in this case.

 

Hairstyles of the Damned is best when read as an adult, both to remember the immaturity and selfishness of our teenage years that we should be glad to leave behind, and to reconsider the sense of hope and idealism that we never should have forgotten.

 

Joe Meno is the author of several novels, plays, and a comic strip entitled Iceberg Town, which is featured in the magazine Punk Planet.  He lives in Chicago, where he teaches fiction writing at Columbia College.  His first novel, Tender as Hellfire, was published when he was 24; his most recent novel, The Great Perhaps, was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice