Scott had been raving about this book, "Banned for Life" by DR Haney for months when I finally picked it up. To be honest, I had gotten a brief email from Mr. Haney (who Scott corresponds with online) after I posted in a caption contest related to his new book ("Subversia") on thenervousbreakdown.com. I decided after Haney's friendly email that I would see what this book was all about.
The book is set in the punk rock scene in the 80s and 90s and, at first, I was put off. It's not that the writing wasn't good. It was just different. It's that I wasn’t that interested in punk rock (after hoping to date a punk rocker in high school only to be turned down). Also, instead of the flowing sea of eloquent words that I have gotten used to reading by authors such as Daphne Du Murier and Anita Shreve , Haney's book was almost conversational, as if the writer were speaking to you instead of putting the words on paper. (In fact, it's very beat-like). His writing was more like (and this is not an insult, just work with me) a herky, jerky ride in a broken down car (perhaps one with a failing transmission?). Once you start to see something nice while looking out the window, you're jerked back into the reality that this is not the smooth ride you were hoping for. However, as the book progressed, as I began to care for Jason, the main character who is a beautifully honest, semi-successful, mostly failing screenwriter, I started to enjoy this ride.
The book, which reads as a memoir (though it's fiction...though I question the fiction of some parts due to Haney’s bio) is about Jason's passionate yet unhealthy relationship with Irina, a Serbian woman who is married to another man. Irina plays a game of tug-o-war with Jason's heart and with his life. First she's faithful to her husband, despite her flirtatious ways (with many more men than just Jason), then she's in love with Jason, then she's going to leave her husband for Jason, then it's not the right time. It goes on like this for quite a bit, all the while Jason is also trying to kindle a relationship with Jim Cassidy, a former punk star who was Jason's role model in his youth. Jim has since become a chain smoking, beer bellied, drunk agoraphobic who lives with his mother. Very sexy. And have I mentioned Peewee? Jason’s best friend and band mate who died in a sober driving accident before Jason became a screenwriter? He’s in there too.
What I came to realize by the end was that not only was Haney following suit with the punk rock theme by not conforming to the pretty, traditional writing styles of today's NYT best sellers, but also, he wasn't covering up reality with beautiful words. He was being gritty and truthful and refreshing, just as Jason’s character is. This is not to say his writing is bad. His writing is great! But it is different, and it took this book to put a connection together: that sometimes we need to step out of our comfort zones (in reading and otherwise) to experience something worthwhile.
A final thought that I had helped me decide that Haney's book is not just a book, but also a work of art. Perhaps it is more soothing to be drawn along by a string of pretty words and elaborate plot lines, but the waves of that ocean of eloquence sure don’t get you anywhere fast. That puttering car took me somewhere! It got me to a place of understanding and inspiration and beauty that I could appreciate for the honest ride that it was.
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