Eleanor Henderson, Ten Thousand Saints
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A novel with a keen ear for teenage dialogue and hardcore music
Plenty of today’s musical subcultures are forever in debt to the econo-jamming, ‘zine-making scenes of yesteryear. The industrious few who booked tours, slept on floors and advertised in the back of the Village Voice inspired a generation of bands (see: Our Band Could Be Your Life), but how about a little gas money? With Minor Threat and Youth of Today as a soundtrack, Eleanor Henderson’s debut, Ten Thousand Saints, reads like a mash-note to rundown studios on Tompkins Square Park and weekend matinees at CBGB. Splitting time between downtown New York and fictional Lintonburg, Vermont (an anagram of Burlington), Saints‘ cast of friends, lovers and fractured families moves at such a rapid clip, it can be difficult to keep relationships straight. But Henderson’s shifting viewpoints makes for an entertaining novel, and something of a narrative mixtape.
On New Year’s Eve 1987, Lintonburg teens Jude and Teddy crash a party with Eliza, a visiting New Yorker who is just barely their senior. By the end of the evening Eliza will become pregnant with Teddy’s child and Teddy will succumb to a drug overdose. Reeling from Teddy’s death and itching for the boho life in New York, Jude moves in with his father, a popular St. Marks pot dealer. Parental figures are largely in the margins of the story — like a punk rock Peanuts, the adults are scattered; many have skipped town and abandoned their children. Meanwhile Teddy’s half-brother, Johnny, assumes responsibility for Eliza and her unborn child. At 18, the high school dropout and popular tattoo artist is a Tompkins Square institution. Johnny, Jude and a few teenage friends form a hardcore band and set off with Eliza for the summer on a Northeast tour before her baby arrives. As a straightedge musician, devout Krishna and neighborhood activist, one might think Johnny lives an open life, but he has secrets of his own.
Narrated with quiet reflection by Steven Kaplan, Ten Thousand Saints covers broad ground in its limited span (largely taking place during Eliza’s pregnancy), including the early spread of AIDS in New York and the arrival of “yuppie scum.” With a keen ear for teenage dialogue, as well as hardcore music, Henderson might be an ’80s kid with Sharpie marks on her hands. Whether or not the author experienced Minor Threat firsthand, her knowledge and passion for the music runs deep in this motley crew.
