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Ballads of Suburbia
Jun. 30th, 2009 09:11 pmThis afternoon, I used some money from today's paycheck to make a very important purchase.
What kind of purchase, you ask?
A pre-order of this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Ballads-Suburbia-Stephanie-Kuehnert/dp/1439102821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246415444&sr=1-1
written by none other than my close friend Stephanie Kuehnert.
I'm really excited about this novel's publication, and not just because I know the author. Ballads is such an important story, in that it portrays the harsh realities that a lot of teenagers face.
It quite literally hit close to home for me, being set in the town just north of the one I grew up in, a town that I idealized way more than I should. It was drilled into my head at a pretty young age that people from Oak Park had it much better than us Cicero folk, that it was a sort of promised land filled with art and culture and superior education. When I was in high school I remember coveting that neighborhood and all that it represented. I had this wrong-headed idea that my life would be so much simpler...that my perpetual sense of alienation and lack of popularity would up and disappear if only I had the privilege of having an Oak Park zip code. That's where kids listened to grunge, not hip hop. That's where kids cared about going to college, about having a promising future. That's where all my kindred spirits existed, only they didn't know it cause they had never met me. I spent my four years at Morton High School feeling cheated, denied my rightful existence thanks to an address that was one block too far south, and about a mile too far east.
Obviously it never occurred to me that kids growing up in a more affluent suburb had their own unique brand of dysfunction to deal with. Ballads brings this fact to the forefront and then some, showing that certain issues, self-mutilation, drug addiction, domestic violence to name a few, transcend class.
Reading this story helps me look back on the lonely, melancholy, fucked-up teen that I was, and realize that where I lived had no bearing on some of my worst problems. It also makes me appreciate my ability to survive a little bit more by illuminating the dark path my life could have taken if only my circumstances were slightly different.
How's that for a shining endorsement? In case you can't read between the lines, the above is my way of telling you that you should pre-order this book and read it as well!
You know I wouldn't write something like this unless I truly believed it. It's my public service announcement for the month. :)
What kind of purchase, you ask?
A pre-order of this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Ballads-Suburbia-Stephanie-Kuehnert/dp/1439102821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246415444&sr=1-1
written by none other than my close friend Stephanie Kuehnert.
I'm really excited about this novel's publication, and not just because I know the author. Ballads is such an important story, in that it portrays the harsh realities that a lot of teenagers face.
It quite literally hit close to home for me, being set in the town just north of the one I grew up in, a town that I idealized way more than I should. It was drilled into my head at a pretty young age that people from Oak Park had it much better than us Cicero folk, that it was a sort of promised land filled with art and culture and superior education. When I was in high school I remember coveting that neighborhood and all that it represented. I had this wrong-headed idea that my life would be so much simpler...that my perpetual sense of alienation and lack of popularity would up and disappear if only I had the privilege of having an Oak Park zip code. That's where kids listened to grunge, not hip hop. That's where kids cared about going to college, about having a promising future. That's where all my kindred spirits existed, only they didn't know it cause they had never met me. I spent my four years at Morton High School feeling cheated, denied my rightful existence thanks to an address that was one block too far south, and about a mile too far east.
Obviously it never occurred to me that kids growing up in a more affluent suburb had their own unique brand of dysfunction to deal with. Ballads brings this fact to the forefront and then some, showing that certain issues, self-mutilation, drug addiction, domestic violence to name a few, transcend class.
Reading this story helps me look back on the lonely, melancholy, fucked-up teen that I was, and realize that where I lived had no bearing on some of my worst problems. It also makes me appreciate my ability to survive a little bit more by illuminating the dark path my life could have taken if only my circumstances were slightly different.
How's that for a shining endorsement? In case you can't read between the lines, the above is my way of telling you that you should pre-order this book and read it as well!
You know I wouldn't write something like this unless I truly believed it. It's my public service announcement for the month. :)
