THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9410030235
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY GAIL GRIFFIN
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
BAD HAIRCUT
Stories of the Seventies
TOM PERROTTA
Bridge Works Publishing Co. 208 pp. $18.95
In high school, a bad-hair day can be near-fatal. So can a lot of other things. Tom Perrotta captures the horror and humor of many of them in his first book, Bad Haircut, a cycle of 10 stories tracing a boy's coming of age in suburban New Jersey.
The likable narrator, Buddy, ages here from 8 to 18. In the first story, ``The Weiner Man,'' he travels to a minimall with his Cub Scout troop to meet a celebrity: a hot dog mascot. In the last, ``Wild Kingdom,'' Buddy, home after his first year in college, sleepwalks through his duties as a pallbearer for his next-door neighbor.
In between, in concise, funny stories, Buddy, an Every-teenager, learns life lessons about racism, sex, homosexuality, violence, conformity and diminished expectations. Perrotta crafts a credible young voice - sometimes dazed and confused, but always straightforward.
Buddy achieves no easy insights while navigating the tricky waters of adolescence. Instead, Perrotta offers stories of teenage awkwardness and cruelty that are both subtle and substantive.
In ``Thirteen,'' Buddy rats on his best friend, who is hiding out in the woods to avoid punishment by his parents. Buddy tests the bounds of friendship again in ``Snowman,'' in which he follows another friend through a revenge spree that includes the destruction of a snowman with a crowbar.
Perrotta, who grew up in a working-class town much like the fictional Darwin, N.J., knows the territory he covers. He sometimes satirizes it, as in ``The Jane Pasco Fan Club,'' in which the town's residents vie to be featured as the Average American Family on the talk show ``Wake Up, America!'' But mostly he matter-of-factly presents the town's many sadnesses, filtered through Buddy's eyes, to touching effect.
Perrotta labels these episodes ``Stories of the Seventies,'' but their appeal has little to do with a decade that pop culture aficionados keep mining for kitsch. The references to Vietnam, marijuana and the Doobie Brothers don't feel forced in Bad Haircut, but neither are they the point.
Instead, these stories offer a perspective on adolescence that transcends nostalgia and resonates with readers, regardless of when they grew up. MEMO: Gail Griffin is a staff editor. by CNB