Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead End Kids (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author, a freelance journalist working on a story about four teenagers in northern New Jersey who, in 1987, killed themselves in a suicide pact, gained entry into the world of the so-called "burnouts" of Bergenfield. Gaines, a former social worker and a devotee of rock music, began hanging out with local kids whose lives were much like those of the teenage suicides. Her reflections on the primacy of death in the culture of these nomads in a middle-class society are expressed in an earthy, colloquial style that marks the author's empathy with alienated youth. This is a hard-hitting, disturbing report urging adults to "renew our social contract with young people."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Teenage Wasteland has become...a cult classic...the kind people refer to in hushed, reverent tones." -- Newsday, May 20, 2001

"The best of these [ethnographic] studies...for example... *Tally's Corner* and more recently, *Teenage Wasteland*...are regarded classics in socology." -- Pacific Sociologist, 1998

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Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (April 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226278727
• ISBN-13: 978-0226278728
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #346,965 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holds up, still relevant and still touches a nerve, November 15, 2005

By	Matthew T. Hickey - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I recently reread this book and was pleased, yet unsurprised to, see how well it's held up. The books easily stands on it's own merits, however I have been compelled to write a review after reading some of the bilge that others have written. Mostly along the lines of "I knew these kids or I'm from Jersey and she shouldn't have written that book", and other unintelligent nonsense and blindfolded provincial tripe. Comparing Dr. Gaines to the Taliban is about as clever as someone comparing homosexuals with the devil. If someone is that stupid as to make that comparison, they're in over their empty head just reading the word sociology, much less a book on the subject.

I read this book not long after it's release. I considered myself a graduate of a similar 'teenage wasteland' on long island, and approached the subject matter with the critical eye of someone with years of experience of suburban malaise, suicidal cohorts and punk and metal soundtracks. After completing the book I was genuinely moved not only by her obvious empathetic treatment of the subject matter, but for her logical conclusions pertaining the conditions that made the events in the book not only understandable, but also unavoidable. She never judged the subjects of the book, and thus gained their confidence. Her personal connection to the events she was writing allowed her a keen insight into the situation she describes without sacrificing clinical, reasoned objectivity.

Not long after reading this book for the first time, I wrote to the author, thanking her for her efforts regarding a subject that I knew well. Instead of receiving a corporate form letter reply or a brush off, I received a personal response from the author and an invitation to discuss the book in person. The author, completely without pretension or hidden agendas, spent time with myself and my friends discussing the ubiquitous dementations, absurdities, and the poignancy of suburbia. She did so without asking anything of us, and we were not exploited or maltreated, nor were the subjects of this book.

The fact that she took the time to give equal time to suburban dirtbags for no other reason than we liked her book... and knew where she was from... speaks volumes of not only her character, but her integrity as well. I highly doubt that the same could be said of the books' critics.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprising!, April 21, 2002

By A Customer

I read this book for a class I was taking and I didn't expect much from it. But I was wrong. This is a very good book and the information is both surprising and relevant. I probably would not have read this book except for my class and I would have missed out on a lot.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a book, but a painting!, June 13, 2001

By	jon roppolo (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Ms Gaines has characterized the culture of the generation that was supposed to inherit the American dream. The explosion of suburbia over the past 50 years has produced a generation struggling with the norms of it's own culture.

Ms. Gaines' "undercover" work in producing this book is superb. She socialized with a group of teenagers to learn about the culture that seems so odd to outsiders, and seems so destructive. She however does not have a "cold, scientific" style -- rather she becomes part of the group honestly. She does not pretend to be one of them. She treats the subject with respect, love, and an open mind.

The result is truly a rich picture of a culture most people never see or frequently don't understand.