Book-It 'o11! Book #14
The Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one and two, just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: Rose of No Man's Land by Michelle Tea
Details: Copyright 2005, MacAdam/Cage Publishing
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "Brimming with snarky obervations and soulful musings on contemporary teenage America, Rose of No Man's Land is Michelle Tea's thrilling coming-of-age tale about a lonely girl lost in the wild kingdom of mall culture.
Fourteen-year-old Trisha Driscoll is a gender-blurring, self-described loner whose family expects nothing of her. While her mother lies on the couch in a hypochondriac haze and her sister aspires to be on The Real World, Trisha struggles to find her own place among the neon signs, theme restaurants, and cookie-cutter chain stores of her hometown.
After being hired and abruptly fired from Omigod!-- the most popular clothing shop at the Square One Mall-- Trisha befriends a chain-smoking misfit named Rose and her life shifts into manic overdrive. Told through Trisha's voice-- both cynical and naive, Rose of No Man’s Land is at once a whirlwind exploration of dropouts, tattoos, and drugs, and the heart-pounding love story of two atypical girls."
Why I Wanted to Read It: The author's other work have received positive reviews and though I couldn't find the original book I wanted from my library, this looked interested.
How I Liked It: The book's jacket isn't quite accurate in its description. The book reads more like a long short story and feels like an indie art film. It's hysterically funny at points and while some characters and scenes lag, the overall pace is enjoyable and the heroine's plight relatable, no matter how unlikeable her actions are.
Writing for teens in the present is a dodgy business. Generally, authors are far better left to stay in the era they themselves remember and leave the present to its generation. Even if the slang and references scan, ethos is something distinct no matter how diverse the characters and it seems uneven in this book. The casual hard drug use (and the general ambivalence about it) as well as the frequent hitchhiking (the missing children movement and "stranger danger" didn't really drop until the 1980s, post Adam Walsh) feel distinctly 70s, the all-powerful mall definitely recalls the height of '80s consumerism (while the most popular store in the mall features almost exclusively '80s music that the teenaged heroine refers to as "old", it's not particularly convincing), and the fascination with The Real World and the scarcity and novelty of cell phones (particularly to denote a character's higher economic status) speak to a '90s mentality, with a nod to baby tees and Eminem hair being considered fashionable seeming to recall the turn of the last century.
The love story, touted as the heart and plot of the book, is actually fairly understated, at least if you look for it as story rather than metaphor (the eccentric Rose leading the main character's introductions to many new misadventures that celebrate the non-conformist leanings she harbors).
While some reviewers have praised the book for not going with a neat, tied-up ending, it still feels somewhat unfinished with the author's subtle close.
Still, the book is enjoyable, engaging, and frequently hilarious.
Notable: The tricky dance of the author who chooses to avoid trademarks in her writing! Nearly all of the fictional mall stores are easily identifiable as their real-life counterparts.
"Dark Subject" is a store that "sells clothes for kids who want to make you think they're really dark, scary people with tortured inner lives." (pg 26) The main character speculates of her superior at Omigod! "[i]f she was working at Dark Subject she'd be wrapped in a cobweb with bats flung from her earlobes." (pg 66)
If you guessed Hot Topic as the real life store, you have at least the faintest grasp of pop culture.
"Lotions & Potions" sells "natural skin stuff" which given the description and the name is easily Bath & Body Works.
Rose works for a fast food joint called "Clown in a Box", another easy one: McDonald's and/or Jack in the Box, except more deep-fried (somehow). "SugarMuffin", specializing in (you guessed it) muffins, calls to mind Cinnabon.
We don't know for sure what exactly Omigod! is taken from, largely because of all the stores, it easily hosts the most scenes. It's the hippest store in the mall, but it sounds like a Claire's (the accessories) with maybe a touch of DELiA*s (the clothing) or perhaps Hollister (the prestige?). But stores that "sort of aspire to be Ohmigod!" include "Eternally Eighteen" and "Tight Knit". "Eternally Eighteen" is easily Forever 21. "Tight Knit", going by name, is a harder figure (if you have any guesses, I'd love to hear 'em).
Oddly, the main character is mentioned towards the beginning of the book shopping (outside the mall) at an actual store, Walgreen's. Perhaps another twisted, very subtle nod to the solipsistic nature of mall culture.
Title: Rose of No Man's Land by Michelle Tea
Details: Copyright 2005, MacAdam/Cage Publishing
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "Brimming with snarky obervations and soulful musings on contemporary teenage America, Rose of No Man's Land is Michelle Tea's thrilling coming-of-age tale about a lonely girl lost in the wild kingdom of mall culture.
Fourteen-year-old Trisha Driscoll is a gender-blurring, self-described loner whose family expects nothing of her. While her mother lies on the couch in a hypochondriac haze and her sister aspires to be on The Real World, Trisha struggles to find her own place among the neon signs, theme restaurants, and cookie-cutter chain stores of her hometown.
After being hired and abruptly fired from Omigod!-- the most popular clothing shop at the Square One Mall-- Trisha befriends a chain-smoking misfit named Rose and her life shifts into manic overdrive. Told through Trisha's voice-- both cynical and naive, Rose of No Man’s Land is at once a whirlwind exploration of dropouts, tattoos, and drugs, and the heart-pounding love story of two atypical girls."
Why I Wanted to Read It: The author's other work have received positive reviews and though I couldn't find the original book I wanted from my library, this looked interested.
How I Liked It: The book's jacket isn't quite accurate in its description. The book reads more like a long short story and feels like an indie art film. It's hysterically funny at points and while some characters and scenes lag, the overall pace is enjoyable and the heroine's plight relatable, no matter how unlikeable her actions are.
Writing for teens in the present is a dodgy business. Generally, authors are far better left to stay in the era they themselves remember and leave the present to its generation. Even if the slang and references scan, ethos is something distinct no matter how diverse the characters and it seems uneven in this book. The casual hard drug use (and the general ambivalence about it) as well as the frequent hitchhiking (the missing children movement and "stranger danger" didn't really drop until the 1980s, post Adam Walsh) feel distinctly 70s, the all-powerful mall definitely recalls the height of '80s consumerism (while the most popular store in the mall features almost exclusively '80s music that the teenaged heroine refers to as "old", it's not particularly convincing), and the fascination with The Real World and the scarcity and novelty of cell phones (particularly to denote a character's higher economic status) speak to a '90s mentality, with a nod to baby tees and Eminem hair being considered fashionable seeming to recall the turn of the last century.
The love story, touted as the heart and plot of the book, is actually fairly understated, at least if you look for it as story rather than metaphor (the eccentric Rose leading the main character's introductions to many new misadventures that celebrate the non-conformist leanings she harbors).
While some reviewers have praised the book for not going with a neat, tied-up ending, it still feels somewhat unfinished with the author's subtle close.
Still, the book is enjoyable, engaging, and frequently hilarious.
Notable: The tricky dance of the author who chooses to avoid trademarks in her writing! Nearly all of the fictional mall stores are easily identifiable as their real-life counterparts.
"Dark Subject" is a store that "sells clothes for kids who want to make you think they're really dark, scary people with tortured inner lives." (pg 26) The main character speculates of her superior at Omigod! "[i]f she was working at Dark Subject she'd be wrapped in a cobweb with bats flung from her earlobes." (pg 66)
If you guessed Hot Topic as the real life store, you have at least the faintest grasp of pop culture.
"Lotions & Potions" sells "natural skin stuff" which given the description and the name is easily Bath & Body Works.
Rose works for a fast food joint called "Clown in a Box", another easy one: McDonald's and/or Jack in the Box, except more deep-fried (somehow). "SugarMuffin", specializing in (you guessed it) muffins, calls to mind Cinnabon.
We don't know for sure what exactly Omigod! is taken from, largely because of all the stores, it easily hosts the most scenes. It's the hippest store in the mall, but it sounds like a Claire's (the accessories) with maybe a touch of DELiA*s (the clothing) or perhaps Hollister (the prestige?). But stores that "sort of aspire to be Ohmigod!" include "Eternally Eighteen" and "Tight Knit". "Eternally Eighteen" is easily Forever 21. "Tight Knit", going by name, is a harder figure (if you have any guesses, I'd love to hear 'em).
Oddly, the main character is mentioned towards the beginning of the book shopping (outside the mall) at an actual store, Walgreen's. Perhaps another twisted, very subtle nod to the solipsistic nature of mall culture.