The KKK took my mommy away
Stephanie Kuehnert’s debut is steeped in punk worship, pubescent sweat, and good old-fashioned soul-searching
By Robyn Detterline
Published: July 24th, 2008 | 12:55pm
If I had read this book when I was a 15-year-old guitar chick, things might have been different. Just maybe I would have believed that I could kick some ass. Just maybe I would have grown up to be a rock star. But I read I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone when I was a 27-year-old critic, so the bravado and confidence that heroine Emily Black inspires sings only to my inner rock goddess who weeps over what might have been.
Stephanie Kuehnert wrote her debut novel as an adult book, but wisely marketed it for a young adult audience. The story follows Emily Black primarily through her teenage years as she struggles to build an honest punk band, create a unique identity, and heal her tattered family. It’s a traditional coming-of-age theme in an untraditional context, and it does a service to young girls who can’t relate to the woeful characters that usually dominate young adult fiction. Emily is angry without being formulaically angst-ridden; she’s tough without being heartless.
Emily’s mother, Louisa, walks out on her daughter and husband when Emily is a baby, ostensibly to “follow the music,” but in reality to escape her fears that she is incapable of being a loving mother. Emily grows up hearing that Louisa was punk before punk existed, and that she didn’t abandon her family but followed her spirit. So while Emily grows up without her mother, she is indelibly stamped with Louisa’s legend and strives to live up to her reputation.
Emily’s aspiration leads her to a life of punk rock. She hangs out at an abandoned warehouse in rural Wisconsin, which serves as a wellspring for edgy, jaded punk rock that inspires the underground of the Midwestern music scene. Emily and her best friend struggle with sex, alcohol, and boys, but above all they worship rock music and fight to be heroes of punk. Emily longs to instigate the next big music scene that will bring her mother home. Louisa’s story is woven with her daughter’s, and, through well-balanced play with plot structure and narration, we see Louisa fall deeper into loneliness as we see Emily find her own voice and rise to stardom.
Adult readers will roll their eyes at some of the characters’ schmaltzier dialog exchanges, writers will sigh at the climax’s reliance on serendipity, and seasoned feminists will groan at some of the un-feminist events and characterizations this purportedly grrl power novel exposes young girls to. But all of these things will be lost on teenagers. They will care about Emily’s strength and rocknroll lifestyle. Saying that Kuehnert’s book is fit for kids is not to belittle it. Teenage punks can grow up to be complacent women who, from time-to-time, need a reminder of the boldness and invincibility they were once so sure they possessed. As such, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone is a manifesto for defiant high school girls, as well as a refresher course for the goddesses they turn into.
—
ABOUT THE BOOK
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone (MTV)
By Stephanie Kuehnert
352 pages
$13
Issue #26
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more