I wanna be your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert

Two months ago I started reading I wanna be your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert, I couldn’t really get into it so  I left it after a few pages (my heart wasn’t into this kind of story).

I picked it up again on the ferry in Greece and I simply couldn’t put it down, even now I can’t stop thinking about my visceral reaction to this gripping  story that shouldn’t be labelled as “ya” .  I suppose the Irving Welsh’s note on the cover should have given me a better idea of what to expect.

I wanna be your Joey Ramone it’s a coming of age story that revolves around Emily Blake’s family, rock n’ roll and a place called home.

Narration is mainly told from Emily’s prospective in a first person narration but some chapters are about Louisa’s story (Emily’s mother) in a third person narration.

“You’re sixteen years lost and I’m sixteen years found. You couldn’t teach me how to live but I figured out how. I figured out how!”

Nothing is superficial about this novel: the friendship between Emily and her best friend Reagan, the relationship between Emily and her father Michael, the lure of the big city when you are born into a small town, the mixture of pain and regret Louisa condemned herself to.

Each and single character feels real, the intensity of their emotions overwhelming, I believe it’s called empathy… my favorite character would be Michael, Kuehnert gives  a poignant portrait of a father and of a man.

Life can sometimes complicate itself, this novel doesn’t simplify leaving space for laughter, love and ultimately hope.

Emily is one of the best female heroine I came across to in a really long time: an angry feminist, a slut, a punk rock musician, she finds the way to channel her inner emotions into music and save herself in the process.

Characters are important and sometimes they make a novel but I wanna be your Joey Ramone is also about places and music.

Places have a symbolical value in this story (as I believe they have in real life): River’s edge (a warehouse in Carlisle where local bands play their angry punk), small farming town Carlisle, Chicago, downtown and the suburbs.

“Punk never became the mainstream in Carlisle. People wore flannel but it was no fashion statement. The jocks that ruled our school called Kurt Cobain a fag because he wore a dress in a music video. Carlisle was stagnant but at River’s Edge the air felt electric and full of promise”

Often when we are born into a small town there is a phase of life in which a surrounding close minded mentality feels like a prison becoming a trigger for rebellion.

I think many readers will relate to Emily but I like the way this novel  goes beyond the obvious  and  hints at the other side of the story, what happens when people find themselves estranged in a big city.

Music…well read it and you’ll understand what I mean, Kuehnert’s passion for music it’s all in there.

Emily sings and plays guitar, her band is called “She laughs” and here it goes my playlist for this story (inspired by the book):

Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash

Train in vain by Clash

Don’t take me for granted by Social Distortion

Ask the angels by Patty Smith

Lust for life by Iggy Pop

Rape me by Nirvana

I wanna be your Joey Ramone by Sleater-Kinney

for a second opinion I recommend Lit Snit.

My grade: 5/5

Em