Bad Haircut; Stories of the Seventies

By Tom Perrotta

New York Times bestselling author Tom Perrotta’s first book is "more powerful than any coming-of-age novel" —The Washington Post Bad Haircut explores the themes that have fascinated Perrotta throughout his career: suburban rituals and mores; sports and religion; the cheerful cheesiness of American consumer life; public tests of manliness; and the moral dilemmas faced by ordinary people, parents, and teenagers alike.  Perrotta has continued to explore these subjects in novels from Election to The Abstinence Teacher.    The ten rich stories here are linked by a single protagonist: Buddy, an adolescent suburban New Jersey boy who is truly seeing his world for the first time and already finding it both mysterious and lacking.  Whether he’s out on a Boy Scout trip with his mother and discovering that his mother actually knows—and has a history with—the man inside the battered foam hot dog costume in "The Weiner Man", feeling the first glimmer that sex might actually be possible for him in "Thirteen", or finding himself swept along on a prank gone very wrong in "Snowman," Buddy is both a recognizable American boy and a trademark Perrotta hero.  Bad Haircut is a moving, spare book from a writer who, even this early in his career, had an assured sense of the complexity of his characters’ emotional landscapes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Dec 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781250010032

Tom Perrotta

Tom Perrotta is the bestselling author of ten works of fiction,including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into critically acclaimed movies, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, which were both adapted into series. He lives outside Boston.

Reviews for Bad Haircut; Stories of the Seventies

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Wiener Man - Your past is never far behind you. A mother connects with an old friend.Thirteen - Coming of age is terrible when trying to help a best friend get the girl.Race Riot - Which side are you on? Racial tensions and peer pressure and a bad combination.Snowman - revenge is not as sweet as you think.Forgiveness - standing for the flag is a choice.A Bill Floyd Christmas - Bill loses his wife and latches on to another family to fill the void.You Start to Live - take chances in life.The Jane Pasco Fan Club - Dating in high school can be dangerous.Just the Way We Were - prom memories.Wild Kingdom - sometimes people can be animals.

[stevejm51 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved these stories. Written in straight forward, accessible language, the stories brought back memories of high school and those miserable, exhilarating times. Good stuff!

[sixslug · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Life is too short to read bad books, is my mantra and one short story into Mr. Perrotta’s collection I had to jump ship. The story in this case was “The Weiner Man” in which a boy goes with his den pack to meet a hotdog company mascot. What could be amusing in someone else’s hands here just ends up reading like dull Boomer memoir with no apparent point. I’m pretty sure there was sex in this story but the author chose not to describe it. Not sure if that was modesty or if he was hoping for fan letters asking about this. Wish I cared more to ask. No. Just…no.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Perrotta proves again that his writing is likeable if not very impactful in this book of loosely connected stories about growing up in the 1970s. While I didn’t enjoy Bad Haircut as much as Perrotta’s later novels, I still devoured it more or less in one sitting and then tossed it aside. It was like a good lunch: I enjoyed the experience but wouldn’t recall it much by the next day.