The Skinny on "Skin"

By Margaret Hicks in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 31, 2006 2:29PM

Remember long ago, back in the sweltering month of July, we asked you for your favorite Chicago book? Remember? We ended up picking “American Skin” by Don Degrazia, an unruly coming-of-age story, set in the Belmont & Clark area in the 1980’s.

Alex Verdi is just another teenager. He’s over-educated and under-utilized. He strives to be a good kid, but the universe keeps subverting him. He’s joined the local “skinheads”, only he’s not sure what they believe in. He gets in fist-fights, but doesn't know what he’s fighting for. He falls in love with girls; then sleeps with other ones.

Verdi is always looking for answers outside himself; he’s a chameleon who acquires the colors of whoever he’s with. He joins the skinheads and the mythical Timmy Penn, at the Gorgon (which is fiction-speak for Medusa's) without even knowing what they stand for. When his skinhead adversary gets put in jail, Verdi thinks “Frank had no one and he wasn’t coming back for a long time. I had to find someone else to be my enemy now”.

And then our young protagonist does what almost every teen does, sooner or later, he discovers Ayn Rand. He ponders; “…my precious ambitions had always been wasted on skirts. But things were different now that I had Ayn Rand. Now every step was a sure, purposeful step, and each spare moment was filled.”

It’s tiring trying to keep up with Verdi; his underlying belief that everything that happens to him isn’t really his fault; his attempts to take a step forward, while we watch him take two back. We realized quickly the tediousness of the book wasn’t a knock on the book itself, but the pain and struggle of rooting for Verdi.

And although some of the events that happen to Alex Verdi seem completely unrealistic (come on, the girl he loves turns out to be his sister?), we enjoyed "American Skin". Degrazia is a solid writer who spins a good yarn. We enjoyed reading about Verdi and definitely remember knowing and loving men like Timmy Penn. We were amazed that somehow we were walking amidst all of this in our teens, and never really knew the seedy underbelly of all that was going on.

We loved reading about that area of Chicago at the time, the grittiness and the violence. And we see similarities today, the half-runaways hanging on the corner sporting clothes and tats they don’t really understand. And of course, the realization that Dunkin’ Donuts is older than we are.

Tune in tomorrow for the next round of our end-of-the-month book review when we'll be asking for your ideas on the next book we should read. And a big shout out to commenter James for recommending "American Skin".