A cultural dictionary of punk 1974-1982

Review by Choice Review

Rombes (English, Univ. of Detroit Mercy), author of Ramones (2005), examines the punk phenomenon through 250-plus alphabetically arranged entries covering seminal UK/US bands and music, newsprint headlines, concepts, novels, politicians, and artists. No traditional reference book, this; Brian Cogan's Encyclopedia of Punk Music and Culture (CH, Dec'06, 44-1844) and Al Spicer's The Rough Guide to Punk (2006) fill that bill. Users are not likely to intentionally seek conceptual entries such as "blank" or "implied velocity" or headlines from fanzines; those entries will be discovered only through browsing or reading the complete work. Using zines, newspapers, novel excerpts, even his own short fiction, Rombes explores, with humor and an inventive presentation, punk's impact during its culture-changing years while also revealing its relationship to creative works and cultural movements. This scattershot analysis would be more cogent as a developed, topically organized treatise, but its style does suggest the short burst approach of many punk songs. More traditional cultural examinations are available, e.g., Robert Sabin's edited Punk Rock: So What? (1999) and Stacy Thompson's Punk Productions (CH, Jan'05, 42-2715), yet Rombes provides pertinent insights not available in these more studied publications. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers. R. A. Aken University of Kentucky

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

At a cursory glance, Rombes's compendium has the form of a dictionary, covering punk bands from the Adolescents to the Zeroes, but scratch the surface and you'll discover a profoundly weird document, where the notion of "punk" expands to include discussions of Angela Carter, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo and Barry Hannah-although even Rombes (Ramones) admits the last is stretching the point. The tone veers from the academic to the confessional: "How can you hesitate about a song that has saved you more than once from the black depths you are prone to fall into?" Rombes asks in an entry concerning the British band Wire. There are several forays into the fictional, including stories about imagined versions of Patti Smith and Joey Ramone, as well as entries written by "Ephraim P. Noble," who is almost certainly a fictional alter ego. If it were touted as a definitive guide to punk culture, the dictionary's omissions would be glaring-but this is something altogether different: a personal investigation into the significance of punk rock, an attempt to inject critical studies with "a big dose of chaos and anarchy" and thereby create a compelling cultural narrative. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Rombes (English, Univ. of Detroit), the author of works on punk musicians and cinema, here examines punk as a cultural movement through A-to-Z entries drawing upon fanzines, magazines, and newspapers to place media and artists in the context of history. In the author's own words, he has "allowed the content of the entries to determine their shape, format and tone." The result is an eclectic examination of the punk movement as well as the cultural and historical issues surrounding it. The book concludes with a postscript analyzing the end of the punk movement in 1982. Bottom Line The author's love and knowledge of the punk era shines throughout the work. There are several other books on punk, but this one's focus on the general historical and cultural perspective of the movement, as well as its accessible and informal style, makes it a worthy addition to the literature. An excellent overview of the era for any library. [The book is also supported on the web at culturaldictionaryofpunk.blogspot.com.]-Samantha Schmehl Hines, Univ. of Montana Lib., Missoula (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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