Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies by Tom Perotta

From the Publisher

Witty, wise coming of age stories. Wonderful. DSWashington Post Book World

Publishers Weekly

Amid the current glut of '70s nostalgia, Perrotta has fashioned a moving cycle of stories that looks past the era's celebrated kitsch to still relevant social and cultural issues and the timeless mysteries of growing up. In 10 tales covering a period from the fall of 1969 to the summer of 1980, he follows the revelations of his narrator, Buddy, from his days as an eight-year-old Cub Scout through his return home from the first year of college. Set in the small New Jersey town of Darwin, these seamless, understated narratives find--in boyhood activities as ordinary as playing sports, riding a bike, taking driver's ed or going to the prom--insights into loneliness, societal violence, sexual identity, racism, mortality and much more. Perrotta eschews sentimentality and overt philosophizing, crafting in Buddy's voice a sensitivity to pregnant moments that remain unexplained and a knack for delicate, unobtrusive metaphor. Forgoing the easy irony of disco and vintage TV, he delivers a convincing portrait of a time of life, illuminating all the profound cruelty and tenderness of adolescence. (June)

Library Journal

This collection of vignettes about growing up features a protagonist named Buddy. The era is the late Seventies, the place is semifictional Cranwood in northern New Jersey, and Buddy's age is pre-to late teens. No matter what the decade, growing up is growing up-painful, embarrassing, traumatic, bittersweet-and it is ably captured here. We read of Buddy's encounter with the Wiener Man, his first multispeed bike, and how friend Kevin finds a way to rip off his stepfather. As Buddy matures story by story, he moves on to his first encounter with racial hatred, time on the football team, loss of virginity, senior prom, and so on until he is ready for college. Buddy has struggled into the adult world. In the last story we find a nice young man who would be easy to like should we happen to meet him. Perrotta, a new, young, fresh writer, remembers how it was to be young and writes with humor and clarity. Recommended.-Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., Tex.

What People Are Saying

Lee K. Abbott
"Tom Perrotta has it right -- our much-divided youth, the big mysteries that come with body hair and fake IDs, the terror and delights that are our growing up."

Tobias Wolff
"His stories remind me...in their wit and humanity and cumulative impact, of Philip Roth's 'Good-Bye Columbus'. Like that book, Perrotta's funny and deeply touching collection marks the arrival of a writer who's here for the long haul."

Bret Lott
"One of those crazy books about growing up that makes us laugh and cry at once."

Product Details

• ISBN: 042515954X
  
• ISBN-13: 9780425159545
• Format: Paperback, 240pp
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Pub. Date: April 1997
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 137,318

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents