Small Town Punk

Rating:
Summary: Working for The Hut
Review: Did every town have a punk rock Pizza Hut? I know mine did, and when I read John Sheppard's book, I realized it wasn't an anomaly. This tale of a Reaganism-infected Florida and the lack of a punk scene features a band of outcasts that anyone with some Black Flag or Dead Kennedys in their record collection could identify with. But the book isn't really a punk rock anthem as much as it is a tale of small town boredom and the desire to get the hell out and do something other than mow lawns and play football and go to church. There's a lot of great humor in the situations these characters go through, but the authentic details of this era sold me on the story. This is a great book to read if you're an old-school punk, a recovered small-town escapee, or just anyone who appreciates a great story.

Rating:
Summary: I thought about things when reading this
Review: First of all, I read this book in two days, laughing out loud in various coffee shops, while I should have been at work. I guess the fact that I was blowing off work instantly meant that I was meant to relate to Buzz, the main character. Sheppard's writing is cynical and hilarious, giving the reader many classic lines that you end up wondering where they came from. For example, "This barber had a pinched-up face, like someone had taped a dog turd under his nose 20 years ago and he'd never removed it, except to maybe freshen it with a new dog turd." or about Tolkien, "He writes ponderous escapist bulls**t that bears no resemblance of real life. Evil is too evil to be actually evil. And good is impossibly good. And it's written like a high school history textbook, so that the d**ks that read it can pat themselves on the back for being smart." It's the sort of real life humor written in a real life way that I enjoy. (Not all the humor is scatological, this is just an example of how lines explode out of nowhere). Also Sheppard's use of dialog is realistic and amazing. It is as if you are at the Pizza Hut, where the characters work (or in their car), listening, laughing, and cracking open a beer with them. The character's are entertaining screw ups, especially Buzz's friends, yet Buzz's character, even though a screw up, is saved by the sweet relationship he has with his sister.

Now the thoughts...

I thought of Holden Caulfield when reading this. I thought of Bright Lights, Big City (the book) while reading this. I thought of my college and High School days while reading this. I thought of Jesus' Son (the book or movie) while reading this. I thought of Hunter S. Thompson while reading this. I thought that this book would make a tremendous movie (please don't cast Matt Damon or Leonardo D.). I thought of a lot of people that would enjoy this book a lot and that I could turn people onto an author that they'd prob. never heard of. I DO give Small Town Punk a strong recommendation, especially for slackers, 80's punks, clubbers etc.

Important to note: This is not a book about PUNK ROCK. The strength of the book is the relationships between friends and their situations, as well as family relations and dysfunction.

Rating:
Summary: it was so great
Review: I may not know much of anything but I do know this was one of the best books i have ever read. His odd life kept you wanting to read more and more. You found yourself becoming sad when it was getting near the end. This book is not a pick-me-up kinda thing but you will surely love it.

Rating:
Summary: punker than toast!
Review: i really really loved this book! i read it in less than 24hours and then i read it again! it really captures the life of a punk in an extremely interesting light. i found myself laughing and nodding in agreement time after time.......and is it just me, or does every small hick town have punks working in the pizza place?!?...well at least thats the way it is in california.
the only complaints i have , is it seems that the author was running short on time and abbruptly ended the book without really any events leading up to it.....it just sort of stopped....and it kind of lacked a plot too......but it was entertaining none the less.
i strongly recommend this book to ANYONE!.....especially if youre into punk!

Rating:
Summary: Worth all the five star reviews
Review: I'm simply astounded that John L. Sheppard isn't famous. Small Town Punk highlights Sheppard's enormous talents for character development and true-to-life dialouge, and his biting sense of humor. Those reviews comparing this work to Catcher in the Rye aren't over-stating Sheppard's talent. I hope he keeps writing.
This is a page-turner you don't have to feel guilty about.

Rating:
Summary: west coast florida, early 80s
Review: I've never been able to explain it, but there's something about guys who grew up near the Tampa area in the early 80s. Some intangible SOMETHING that sets them apart from everyone else. And this book helped me take a peek into the why.

Rating:
Summary: Glory and Pity
Review: Small Town Punk is a work of profoundly serious intent, set in an unlikely milieu; the marginal, lower working class of Florida, far from the glamorous wealthy beachfronts. In tightly written, yet evocative, prose, it depicts places, people, situations, and emotions - of an atmosphere
and social class generally ignored by most writers.
Indeed, this class, in addition to the disadvantages of poverty,
suffers from being the only social group in America which it is permissible,
even de riguer, to disparage. Popularly, even gleefully, known as "poor
white trash", they do the dirty dangerous work, and their young sons most of the dying in our wars, but are mocked and belittled by much of their country. Sheppard makes these disposable people recognizably American and sympathetic.
The young narrator's inchoate anger at the shabby cards life
has dealt him, his friendships and longings, adventures and
travails, maintain the perspective and limitations of his age and

circumstances.
In this book, Florida is not sunny, it is miserably hot. The
surroundings are not in luxurious, expensive pastels; they are dark, tawdry and mean. The characters work when they must, and find evanescent pleasures when they can.
The characters include oddball friends and madcap relatives. There
are quirky encounters, bitter social criticism, youthful primal urges and
tugs of heart of a a sensitive, intelligent youth struggling to make sense
of it all, and his place in the world.
This is an accomplished novel. In parts it reminded me of A
Confederacy of Dunces, in parts Huck Finn, a soup son of Hiassen - and maybe Kafka, not from style or substance, but in its bleak hopelessness and absurdity.
There is a modern Romanticism here. Beyond the quotidian
indignities, discomforts, and aesthetic nullities (even of language and
emotional realms) of life at the margins in Florida, rendered with
minimalist precision - there is expressed and implied anger. That life is
unfair and unforgiving and uncaring is taken for granted.
However, the response to that weltanschaung is not resigned
acceptance - it is rage. That is where Romanticism comes in. Innocents
suffer and life has no point - the implied response in the novel is
that it is wrong, that should not be, life should be better than that. At
one point, even the Creator is held to account, and rebuked.
The anger is key. No such emotion would be called for or necessary, if fatalism were operating here. For anger arises only when there is a focus for the anger, or the thwarted possibility that life could be more congenial if not for the operation of a malign force or forces. The focus might be God, or Nature, or perhaps the Cosmos. Or it could be Man himself, as operative of Society, with the potential of making the life of his less fortunate fellows less onerous, and even happier.
There is another possible cause of the anger, more intimate and
elusive, as invisible as the Almighty. It is subtly acknowledged in the novel that a man is enemy to himself. The perverse, spiteful, self-soul eating destroyer within, acknowledged by sages and saints since humanity's dawn.
Each canker, macro and micro, is adumbrated in the book. They may all be operative for the narrator. Each of them is assailed in some way (paradoxical, in a work so determinedly affectless) as an
adversary that might somehow, in some way, be defeated. It is ultimately
for the reader to decide if such a Promethean (and thus, Romantic) notion
can be accepted as a legitimate course. In this philosophy, the only alternative is complete despair.
Imagine a man shaking his fists at a thunderstorm, or his own life.
He knows his rage is impotent, yet on he rages. That is the courage of
humanity. It is the glory and the pity of our own lives.