I recently finished Eleanor & Park, a YA book I had somehow gleaned enough information about to believe it might be good. It was. I’ve never read a book before that exactly captured what it was like to grow up in the late 80s.
The author gets it so right that for the first time, I’ve felt totally returned to a time about a time 25 years past. I went right back to being this person as I read the book:
The year after this photo was taken, when I was 16, I got a job at the Record Bar at the Berkshire Mall. I think I thought it would be cool, like Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink:
This was the reality:
Eleanor & Park completely captured the 80s I lived—when the post-New Wave/Smiths/Fishbone/Camper Van Beethoven 80s were miles and oceans apart from the Robert Palmer 80s, and you knew which side you were on.
It made me dig out my old mix tape playlists, or recreate them as best I could from cassette singles (!) long since thrown away.
P.S. Also, obligatory high school graduation photo. So. Many. Perms.
