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Punk and post-punk aren’t just musical genres; they represent a particular worldview and ethos. DIY, nihilistic, and anti-establishment, rebellion is encoded in every line of a punk piece. This week’s book club features books with a strong punk and post-punk feel to them. They’re anarchic, transgressive, and aggressive. So put on some Clash, Misfits, or New York Dolls, and read these new books.
<em>Fade Into You</em>
“I hop the fence into an empty lot and walk toward the main road. Think it’s Garvey, can’t be sure. Kick some smashed-up Old E 40s across the ripped-up asphalt. Cancer butts and orange juice caps, old doll hair and other debris that’s floated down from the city clog up the cracks. The pink stucco apartments and motels stuffed into the flat expanse like miniature huts. Blinking vacant, vacant. The rainbow flags around the car dealerships flap underneath bright neon lights. ‘Three Days’ by Jane’s Addiction is playing on my Walkman and I feel like I’m in a movie, like I’m an assassin. I skip through the dark street and wait in the middle of the road as souped-up rockets and old beaters honk and swerve around me. Raise my arms, cigarette hanging from my lips like some outlaw. I’m smiling. It’s clenched there all tobaccoey between my teeth. I’ve got someplace to be or maybe nowhere to go. My head is a hive of vibration and sonic awesomeness.”
<em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Can-Save-Us-All/dp/1944700765" target="_blank">We Can Save Us All</a></em>
David Fuffman is an engineering student at Princeton University at a time of personal and only barely fictionalized worldwide crisis. “Chronostrictesis,” as the scientists call it, means that time is up — or collapsing, and climate change is about to destroy us all. It’s a recipe for the twin comforts of nihilism and demagoguery, and David is at the center of both.
<em>The April 3rd Incident</em>
When Chinese writer Yu Hua released his debut stories in 1983, he was heralded as a new avant-garde, postmodern voice. Chaos, brutality, and even magical realism touched his work, deeply influenced by the Cultural Revolution. His style gradually changed after audiences found his early fiction to be mystifyingly complex and non-traditional. In this collection, seven stories from Yu Hua’s early years have been compiled and translated into English. Translator Barr describes these fledgling works as potentially “disorienting,” a challenge to “the boundaries of contemporary Chinese literature.” The in-your-face tone of the stories and their anarchic spirit are perfect for punks and post-punks alike.
