Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
HarperCollins e-books (2011), Edition: 1st, 399 pages
Description
When his best friend Teddy dies of an overdose on the last day of 1987, Jude Keffy-Horn finds his relationship with drugs and his parents devolving into the extreme when he gets caught up in an underground youth culture known as straight edge.
Media reviews
Henderson’s book reads in part like an elegy: she follows her characters from 1987 to 2006, long enough to capture the end of the era and its strange aftermath.
The ambition of "Ten Thousand Saints," Eleanor Henderson’s debut novel about a group of unambitious lost souls, is beautiful. In nearly 400 pages, Henderson does not hold back once: she writes the hell out of every moment, every scene, every perspective, every fleeting impression, every impulse
Show More
and desire and bit of emotional detritus. She is never ironic or underwhelmed; her preferred mode is fierce, devoted and elegiac. Show Less
At times, 'Ten Thousand Saints' feels overplotted, as if the author had let her cast of love-and-drug-besotted misfits take the reins. But that haphazardness paired with the sometime painful teenage rites of passage, adds up to a bittersweet, lovely book.
"Ten Thousand Saints" is a whirling dervish of a first novel — a planet, a universe, a trip. As wild as that may sound, wonder of wonders, the book is also carefully and lovingly created, taking the reader far into the lives and souls of its characters and bringing them back out again, blinking
Show More
in the bright light. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member wilsonknut
Eleanor Henderson’s debut novel Ten Thousand Saints is set in the late 1980s and moves between small-town Vermont and New York City’s Lower East Side. The topics range from gentrification, hardcore punk, drugs, death, teen pregnancy, sexuality, AIDS, straight edge culture, family dysfunction,
The novel begins-
"Beneath the stadium seats of the football field, on the last morning of 1987 and the last morning of Teddy’s life, the two boys lay side by side, a pair of snow angels bundled in thrift-store parkas. If you were to spy them from above, between the slats of the bleachers—or smoking behind the school gym, or sliding their skateboards down the stone wall by the lake—you might confuse one for the other. But Teddy was the dark-haired one, Jude the redhead."
Teddy and Jude are the stereotypical small-town misfits in the late 1980s. Their families are dysfunctional. Their fathers are painfully absent. They’re bored and constantly looking for highs.
"Last night they’d shared a jug of Carlo Rossi and the pot they’d found in the glove box of Teddy’s mom’s car, while they listened to Metallica’s first album, Kill ‘Em All, which skipped, and to Teddy’s mom, Queen Bea, who had her own stash of booze, getting sick in the bathroom, retch, flush, retch, flush."
Henderson spends the first fifty pages or so building this relationship between the two boys. Jude is brash and stupid, looking for confrontation and escape, and Teddy is his lovable sidekick, quietly wondering if he can rebuild a relationship with his brother and find his father. He is secretly planning to leave and go to New York. And then Teddy dies.
Teddy’s death is the impetus for the rest of the novel and eventually, Jude’s coming-of-age. Much is done in Teddy’s name, though the characters are so flawed, it’s hard to tell if they are being genuine or if they are just clinging to anything that may have a little meaning. The frustrating absurdity of teenage logic may put some readers off, though Henderson captures it perfectly.
For example, take this stream of thought from Eliza, who is pregnant with Teddy’s baby:
"She had wanted to make something happen; she had asked for heartbreak and she’d gotten it. And it was bigger than anything in her life. She wanted to forget Teddy, and she wanted something to remember him by.
She was aware of this paradox in a subliminal way, and of Johnny’s and Jude’s part in it. She wanted to know them, too; she wanted to forget them. She tried hard to drown them out. She ignored the blank page of her underwear…"
Jude makes the pilgrimage to New York that Teddy wanted to make. He becomes a passionate recruit of the straight-edge punk scene and forms a proxy family with Teddy’s brother and Eliza.
Family is a strong theme throughout the book. Among all the teenage angst and tribalism, Henderson captures the grown-ups too. Jude’s mom is the most realized of the bunch, as she struggles with her mistakes as a parent. She wants to reconcile, but feels hopeless.
"Harriet watched the boys come and go. From the basement to the van, from Jude’s room to the fridge. She listened for them on the stairs, on the fire escape, to the ring of the phone and the drone of their showers and puerile wail of their guitars. She observed Jude’s romance with straight edge as she might have observed his first love—warily, with a mother’s pride, hoping that, in the end his heart wouldn’t break too hard."
Jude’s pot-dealing father and Eliza’s wealthy mother also play significant parts throughout the book.
I have to say I was predisposed to like the novel simply because I can relate to it so much. I grow up during this time period playing in a band traveling up and down I-95. I knew kids who were eerily similar to these characters. It’s obvious that Henderson did her research for the book. She recreates the time and place with precision, but I imagine the details may be too much for some readers. The writing is good. Nostalgia or not, I enjoyed the novel and look forward to Henderson’s next book.
Show More
misguided loyalty, and generation gaps. Needless to say it’s an ambitious debut novel. The novel begins-
"Beneath the stadium seats of the football field, on the last morning of 1987 and the last morning of Teddy’s life, the two boys lay side by side, a pair of snow angels bundled in thrift-store parkas. If you were to spy them from above, between the slats of the bleachers—or smoking behind the school gym, or sliding their skateboards down the stone wall by the lake—you might confuse one for the other. But Teddy was the dark-haired one, Jude the redhead."
Teddy and Jude are the stereotypical small-town misfits in the late 1980s. Their families are dysfunctional. Their fathers are painfully absent. They’re bored and constantly looking for highs.
"Last night they’d shared a jug of Carlo Rossi and the pot they’d found in the glove box of Teddy’s mom’s car, while they listened to Metallica’s first album, Kill ‘Em All, which skipped, and to Teddy’s mom, Queen Bea, who had her own stash of booze, getting sick in the bathroom, retch, flush, retch, flush."
Henderson spends the first fifty pages or so building this relationship between the two boys. Jude is brash and stupid, looking for confrontation and escape, and Teddy is his lovable sidekick, quietly wondering if he can rebuild a relationship with his brother and find his father. He is secretly planning to leave and go to New York. And then Teddy dies.
Teddy’s death is the impetus for the rest of the novel and eventually, Jude’s coming-of-age. Much is done in Teddy’s name, though the characters are so flawed, it’s hard to tell if they are being genuine or if they are just clinging to anything that may have a little meaning. The frustrating absurdity of teenage logic may put some readers off, though Henderson captures it perfectly.
For example, take this stream of thought from Eliza, who is pregnant with Teddy’s baby:
"She had wanted to make something happen; she had asked for heartbreak and she’d gotten it. And it was bigger than anything in her life. She wanted to forget Teddy, and she wanted something to remember him by.
She was aware of this paradox in a subliminal way, and of Johnny’s and Jude’s part in it. She wanted to know them, too; she wanted to forget them. She tried hard to drown them out. She ignored the blank page of her underwear…"
Jude makes the pilgrimage to New York that Teddy wanted to make. He becomes a passionate recruit of the straight-edge punk scene and forms a proxy family with Teddy’s brother and Eliza.
Family is a strong theme throughout the book. Among all the teenage angst and tribalism, Henderson captures the grown-ups too. Jude’s mom is the most realized of the bunch, as she struggles with her mistakes as a parent. She wants to reconcile, but feels hopeless.
"Harriet watched the boys come and go. From the basement to the van, from Jude’s room to the fridge. She listened for them on the stairs, on the fire escape, to the ring of the phone and the drone of their showers and puerile wail of their guitars. She observed Jude’s romance with straight edge as she might have observed his first love—warily, with a mother’s pride, hoping that, in the end his heart wouldn’t break too hard."
Jude’s pot-dealing father and Eliza’s wealthy mother also play significant parts throughout the book.
I have to say I was predisposed to like the novel simply because I can relate to it so much. I grow up during this time period playing in a band traveling up and down I-95. I knew kids who were eerily similar to these characters. It’s obvious that Henderson did her research for the book. She recreates the time and place with precision, but I imagine the details may be too much for some readers. The writing is good. Nostalgia or not, I enjoyed the novel and look forward to Henderson’s next book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member melmore
A lovely, intensely observed, thoughtful novel. However, it made me want to just take its lost and wounded protagonists home and make them eat a nice bowl of soup and put them to bed early...
LibraryThing member GCPLreader
Ten Thousand Saints is a strong debut novel set in the 80's in the NYC drug and music scene. Three teens cope with the death of their friend and their unstable parents. The "straight edge" counter-punk culture is new to me and it was interesting to read about this alternative life/music movement
Show More
for kids who wanted to clean up their acts. The author does a great job of showing that parenting under the influence is quite ineffective! There were a lot of characters to keep straight and I sometimes wanted them to slow down and just stay in for a while, but you know teenagers. No doubt, the author tries to do too much here, but the writing is wonderfully intense and quite descriptive. Eleanor Henderson is definitely an author to watch. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookchickdi
I had heard good things about this book, but wasn't sure I'd be interested in the coming-of-age story of straight edge teens in the late 1980s New York City. Boy, was I wrong.
Henderson has such compassion for her characters- Jude, the drug-using boy in love with a girl who slept with his best
The minor characters are well drawn too; I particularly liked Jude's estranged father who left his family behind years ago, and although he faithfully sent support checks, checked out of his son and daughter's emotional life. Henderson has created this world that I had no idea about, the straight edge world of young people living in poverty on the Lower East Side of New York City in the late 1980s. It was a much different world there than it is today. They live with the homeless, violence and drug dealers in Tompkins Park, and with the fear and ignorance spawned by the AIDS epidemic.
There is one scene, a fight scene, that echoes S.E. Hinton's classic book, "The Outsiders", and I loved her homage to that story about teens also on the outside of mainstream society. (One of the characters even mentions the book later in the story.) This book will appeal to all of us who grew up loving "The Outsiders".
Part of the story takes place in Vermont, and Henderson creates that world with as much care. I felt like I was dropped into this story, these worlds that I knew little about. Great fiction can open up your mind and heart to characters and new ideas, and "Ten Thousand Saints" is great fiction. It is one of the best books I have read this year, and i can't wait for more from Eleanor Henderson.
I read this book in two sittings, I just couldn't put it down. These characters manage to crawl inside your heart, and when they make bad decisions and mess things up, you just want to hug them and tell them it will be alright.
Henderson has such compassion for her characters- Jude, the drug-using boy in love with a girl who slept with his best
Show More
friend Teddy, Eliza, the lost rich girl with a secret, Johnny, Teddy's straight edge musician brother hiding from himself- that you feel like you know these people and care deeply about what happens to them. Even Teddy, who only exists for 72 pages yet whose presence influences all of the main characters, is so vivid, I felt I knew him well.The minor characters are well drawn too; I particularly liked Jude's estranged father who left his family behind years ago, and although he faithfully sent support checks, checked out of his son and daughter's emotional life. Henderson has created this world that I had no idea about, the straight edge world of young people living in poverty on the Lower East Side of New York City in the late 1980s. It was a much different world there than it is today. They live with the homeless, violence and drug dealers in Tompkins Park, and with the fear and ignorance spawned by the AIDS epidemic.
There is one scene, a fight scene, that echoes S.E. Hinton's classic book, "The Outsiders", and I loved her homage to that story about teens also on the outside of mainstream society. (One of the characters even mentions the book later in the story.) This book will appeal to all of us who grew up loving "The Outsiders".
Part of the story takes place in Vermont, and Henderson creates that world with as much care. I felt like I was dropped into this story, these worlds that I knew little about. Great fiction can open up your mind and heart to characters and new ideas, and "Ten Thousand Saints" is great fiction. It is one of the best books I have read this year, and i can't wait for more from Eleanor Henderson.
I read this book in two sittings, I just couldn't put it down. These characters manage to crawl inside your heart, and when they make bad decisions and mess things up, you just want to hug them and tell them it will be alright.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lukespapa
This novel, for the most part, reflects the zeitgeist of mid-to-late 1980’s New York City, and more specifically the developing straight edge/hard core scene. However, this is just the backdrop for the real meat of the book which is teenage angst in all its glory. The plot involves the poor
Show More
choices of two best friends, Jude and Teddy, and a visiting daughter of the girlfriend of Jude’s long-gone adoptive father. It only gets more complicated as the narrative examines the life-altering consequences of their actions on a myriad of other loosely-connected people. Among the casualties the author makes clear that adults don’t fare any better, morally or ethically, they just have more skills, more money, and more connections to ease their pain. A gritty book to read with no rose-colored glasses provided. Show Less
LibraryThing member AnthonySchmitz
Truth is, it seems a little long before it's over, and a few of the main characters never really take off. But it's a big, old-fashioned novel at heart, even if it is about the straight-edge music scene of the late 80s. You get a touch of the mindless violence associated with that, plus the earlier
Show More
days of the AIDS epidemic and the rattiness of NYC during the period. Weirdly, it's something of a historical novel, and for me slightly more satisfying than A Visit From the Goon Squad. (Though they make good companion pieces.) Show Less
LibraryThing member St.CroixSue
Gritty coming of age in the 1980s set in Vermont and New York City. Characters include a strangely related group of kids and their odd assortment of parents. Engaging and wonderfully written with a keen eye on the drug scene, adolescence, and what happens when you mix it all up.
LibraryThing member jmchshannon
Eleanor Henderson's Ten Thousand Saints is a subtle novel that could simplistically be described with a key theme of growing up but actually delves into so much more should the reader opt to do so. Jude, Eliza and Johnny are three kids who are just playing at being grown-up and mature. They put on
Ten Thousand Saints is reminscient of Less Than Zero with its huge focus on the drug and punk scene. Interestingly, socio-economic backgrounds provide no indication of whether one will be drawn into the drug scene. More importantly, while "straight edge" is the opposite of the drug scene, it is still a form of rebellion against society. All three characters are driven to action by the fear of the truth and anger at their respective parent(s). While their reasons differ, the end result is still a group of young adults who hide rather than face reality. Death - past, immediate, and future - along with birth - past and future - become the driving force behind each character's metamorphasis into adulthood. Hiding behind the "scene" rather than confronting the truth is one key coping mechanism.
The narrator, Steven Kaplan, provides an understated performance that works well with the highly dramatic lives of the three protagonists. The differences in his portrayal of each character are subtle and yet effective as the differences in each character, outside of the obvious gender differences, are just as nuanced. This is one novel where added tension and drama is not necessary, and Mr. Kaplan avoids adding extraneous emotion to each character, playing up the boredom and lack of concern each character is trying so desperately to portray to the world. Mr. Kaplan's simple approach to the narration of Ten Thousand Saints allows Ms. Henderson's characters to speak for themselves.
In its storytelling, Ten Thousand Saints is poetic in its simplicity while unflinching in its harsh portrayal of addicts of all kinds. Human redemption stands alongside human depravity to offer a brutally realistic and yet beautiful story of love and its power to save.
Thank you to Beth Harper from Harper Audio for my review copy!
Show More
a good front, but underneath, their feelings of loneliness and loss bring them together. The overwhelming air of sadness that permeates the novel only adds to each character's melancholy and struggle to face reality. Ms. Henderson masterfully weaves the rebellion and loss that defines much of the novel in such a way that the end result is a story that ends on a note of hope - that even the most depressed, lost and lonely person can find love, acceptance, and happiness.Ten Thousand Saints is reminscient of Less Than Zero with its huge focus on the drug and punk scene. Interestingly, socio-economic backgrounds provide no indication of whether one will be drawn into the drug scene. More importantly, while "straight edge" is the opposite of the drug scene, it is still a form of rebellion against society. All three characters are driven to action by the fear of the truth and anger at their respective parent(s). While their reasons differ, the end result is still a group of young adults who hide rather than face reality. Death - past, immediate, and future - along with birth - past and future - become the driving force behind each character's metamorphasis into adulthood. Hiding behind the "scene" rather than confronting the truth is one key coping mechanism.
The narrator, Steven Kaplan, provides an understated performance that works well with the highly dramatic lives of the three protagonists. The differences in his portrayal of each character are subtle and yet effective as the differences in each character, outside of the obvious gender differences, are just as nuanced. This is one novel where added tension and drama is not necessary, and Mr. Kaplan avoids adding extraneous emotion to each character, playing up the boredom and lack of concern each character is trying so desperately to portray to the world. Mr. Kaplan's simple approach to the narration of Ten Thousand Saints allows Ms. Henderson's characters to speak for themselves.
In its storytelling, Ten Thousand Saints is poetic in its simplicity while unflinching in its harsh portrayal of addicts of all kinds. Human redemption stands alongside human depravity to offer a brutally realistic and yet beautiful story of love and its power to save.
Thank you to Beth Harper from Harper Audio for my review copy!
Show Less
LibraryThing member refice
This is a well written novel that is depressing on so many levels that I hesitate to recommend it.
Set in the late 1980’s at the early stages of the punk rock era, the story follows a year in the lives of several teenagers, each the product of poor parenting. Tragically, Teddy dies of a drug
There, Jude’s life becomes entwined with equally damaged young people – Teddy’s older brother Johnny, and his father’s girlfriend’s daughter Eliza (who happens to be pregnant from a single encounter with the late Teddy).
Every character in this novel is irredeemably flawed. The final pages offer the reader a small token of salvation for Jude.
Having said all that, Henderson’s prose is outstanding, as gritty and hard hitting as the events she describes. I dwelt on the book every time I had to put it down. I give it high marks for quality, with a warning that it should not be undertaken by the faint hearted.
Set in the late 1980’s at the early stages of the punk rock era, the story follows a year in the lives of several teenagers, each the product of poor parenting. Tragically, Teddy dies of a drug
Show More
overdose in the opening pages. His best friend Jude narrowly escapes the same fate. Jude’s subsequent depression leads him to make some incredibly poor choices (albeit typically teenage choices) and his mother, Harriet, an aging hippie, sends him to live with his pot addicted, drug dealing father in New York City.There, Jude’s life becomes entwined with equally damaged young people – Teddy’s older brother Johnny, and his father’s girlfriend’s daughter Eliza (who happens to be pregnant from a single encounter with the late Teddy).
Every character in this novel is irredeemably flawed. The final pages offer the reader a small token of salvation for Jude.
Having said all that, Henderson’s prose is outstanding, as gritty and hard hitting as the events she describes. I dwelt on the book every time I had to put it down. I give it high marks for quality, with a warning that it should not be undertaken by the faint hearted.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Laura400
A story that sticks with you. Its characters are imperfect and deeply affecting. Remarkably, the character who dies on the story's first day is so well drawn that he stays alive in a way, not only for his young friends, but for the reader. His loss hovers over the story
And the story itself is a
It is a long book. The tempo drags in spots. And the author occasionally drops certain threads of the story that she spent a long time developing, most crucially a main character's possible Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. But these are in the end nits. It is an impressive novel, with beautiful writing.
And the story itself is a
Show More
thoughful exploration of adolescents and their parents, in a setting of hardcore music, drugs and the early days of the AIDS crisis. Its sense of time and place is perfect: if you were young in the late 1980s, this book will bring you back.It is a long book. The tempo drags in spots. And the author occasionally drops certain threads of the story that she spent a long time developing, most crucially a main character's possible Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. But these are in the end nits. It is an impressive novel, with beautiful writing.
Show Less
LibraryThing member BaileysAndBooks
Even if the story itself had some holes, it was such an enjoyable, well-written read, I really didn't care. It was also a amazing look at the lost NYC of the late 1980s. I can see why this one made some Top 10 of 2011 lists and I am glad to have gotten this one in to this year's reading.
LibraryThing member coolmama
I enjoyed this ambitious debut novel that centered on the interesection of the lives of Jude, Johnny and Eliza in the year 1988 both in rural Vermont, and in the East Village, NYC. It took me a long time to get into the novel (it just didn't capture my attention at the beginning). But once it did,
Show More
I was hooked. That said, it was still quite uneven. Show Less
LibraryThing member foodairbooks
Warning: spoilers, & a bit ranty at the start.
Boys' coming of age. Boys' sexual maturing. Why not girls? Why Jude and Johnny; why not Judy and Joanna?
Eliza gets to have sex, be pregnant & give up the baby. Breeding isn't all girls do in real life, though. Girls play in bands, get high with their
Boys have almost all the stories so far. Appropriate their voice where it benefits you, but I don't see where this benefits anyone. I want to hear from a 16 year old girl band singer. I was a girl, & I enjoyed it, & want to hear about it. This is why I love Mary Gaitskill: she tells girls' stories.
So, that's why 4 ½ stars instead of 5, or even 6 or 7.
Apart from the girl thing, I loved this book. I was young then, too. I loved New York in the late 80s. I listened to that music. (I listened to everything then.)
It's really beautifully written. I read it really slowly, so it would last.
The characters are distinct and realistic, and they have their own stories. The outcome seems like a genuine outcome resulting from the interactions of all these people. It's the best book I've read in ages.
Boys' coming of age. Boys' sexual maturing. Why not girls? Why Jude and Johnny; why not Judy and Joanna?
Eliza gets to have sex, be pregnant & give up the baby. Breeding isn't all girls do in real life, though. Girls play in bands, get high with their
Show More
friends, & plan to go to New York when they finish high school. & often they do this without thinking of boys at all, except as occasional objects of desire. Boys have almost all the stories so far. Appropriate their voice where it benefits you, but I don't see where this benefits anyone. I want to hear from a 16 year old girl band singer. I was a girl, & I enjoyed it, & want to hear about it. This is why I love Mary Gaitskill: she tells girls' stories.
So, that's why 4 ½ stars instead of 5, or even 6 or 7.
Apart from the girl thing, I loved this book. I was young then, too. I loved New York in the late 80s. I listened to that music. (I listened to everything then.)
It's really beautifully written. I read it really slowly, so it would last.
The characters are distinct and realistic, and they have their own stories. The outcome seems like a genuine outcome resulting from the interactions of all these people. It's the best book I've read in ages.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
Eleanor Henderson breathes life into a time, place, and milieu. The time is 1987, the place is New York City and Lintonburg, Vermont, and the milieu is the niche hardcore punk "straight-edge" scene. The protagonists are children, teenagers all, but children seemingly torn from their own childhoods.
Jude and Teddy and Johnny and Eliza are the generation following that of promiscuous drug use and sexual freedom. One way or another--either through tragedy or steely will--they turn their backs on the choices their parents made. Jude, especially, runs the gamut from pot smoking, gas huffing fifteen year old to straight-edge abstainer of alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and meat. Sexually confused but not sexually ambitious, Jude moves tentatively toward increasingly adult relations both sexual and caring. Johnny is an equally impressive portrait from Henderson, though sexually more adventurous. Strangely, it is Eliza, the wilful, privileged, now pregnant teen who is the least believable character.
At times the writing seems forced, with awkward movements of characters to different locales. At times there are chapters that feel like information dumps, bringing the reader up to speed on the punk and straight-edge scene of the '80s. But these are minor problems in a first novel that undoubtedly provides ample evidence of Henderson's potential. Well worth a read.
Show More
Orphans, adoptees, runaways and waifs -- their relationships with the parental adult world is as fraught and complicated as the world itself. And yet, like an experiential juggernaut, these youths insist on becoming adults, through pain and misfortune and hope and the possibility of love.Jude and Teddy and Johnny and Eliza are the generation following that of promiscuous drug use and sexual freedom. One way or another--either through tragedy or steely will--they turn their backs on the choices their parents made. Jude, especially, runs the gamut from pot smoking, gas huffing fifteen year old to straight-edge abstainer of alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and meat. Sexually confused but not sexually ambitious, Jude moves tentatively toward increasingly adult relations both sexual and caring. Johnny is an equally impressive portrait from Henderson, though sexually more adventurous. Strangely, it is Eliza, the wilful, privileged, now pregnant teen who is the least believable character.
At times the writing seems forced, with awkward movements of characters to different locales. At times there are chapters that feel like information dumps, bringing the reader up to speed on the punk and straight-edge scene of the '80s. But these are minor problems in a first novel that undoubtedly provides ample evidence of Henderson's potential. Well worth a read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member EricKibler
It's a decent coming of age novel set in the late 80s, having as a backdrop the hardcore punk scene at the time, specifically, the "straight edge" movement. Straight edge rockers didn't smoke, drink, or do drugs, and tried to abstain from sex as well.
When we first meet Jude and his best friend
I can't say this is the best book of its type I've ever read. I guess I never connected with any of the characters.
When we first meet Jude and his best friend
Show More
Teddy, they are anything but straight edge: snorting, smoking and huffing everything in sight. But when Teddy dies (I'm not giving anything away--you find out on the first page that he's doomed), Jude slowly begins to re-evaluate his priorities. Jude and his hometown buddies resemble the aimless losers in a Raymond Carver story. The older generation of free-living parents recalls the bewildered aging hippies from Ann Beattie's stories. Along the way, we are offered both squalid and upscale NYC scenes, Krishna Consciousness, same sex romance, teen pregnancy, a marriage of convenience, and rampant AIDS.I can't say this is the best book of its type I've ever read. I guess I never connected with any of the characters.
Show Less
LibraryThing member adpaton
The thought of a Bildungsroman saturated with teenage angst and infused with the zeitgeist of late 1980s New York counter-culture may not appeal to everyone but Eleanor Henderson’s debut novel Ten Thousand Saints grips from the very first page, where she introduces the gorgeous, soon-to-be-dead
We never meet Teddy’s mum, who abandons him the day the story begins, but Jude is the adopted son of an aging hippy, whose mothering skills dissipated in a cloud of marijuana smoke: Jude was born with probable foetal alcohol syndrome, so it’s likely his birth-mother was no loss either.
Within a few hours of our meeting him, Teddy is dead, killed by a mixture of cocaine, Freon gas and hypothermia, leaving Jude bereft and determined to escape reality through whatever means possible and, desperate, his hapless mother sends him to New York to live with her husband, a successful drug dealer.
Up-town New York teen Eliza, the daughter of Jude’s absent dad’s girlfriend, is pregnant by Teddy [whom she gave the cocaine that was responsible for his death] and hooks up with tattooist-cum-musician Johnny, Teddy’s half brother.
Yes, it all sounds incredibly complicated but it isn’t really: this is a well-written and moving tribute to a world completely alien to me, the ‘straight-edge’ culture, a punk music movement which regarded the body as a temple, condemning sex, drugs, alcohol and any physical or dietary impurity [such as meat or coffee] as unclean.
Road trips and musicians, pregnancy and sexuality, homosexuality and homophobia, Aids and homelessness, Hare Krishna and spirituality, love and redemption are just some of the themes explored in this novel. Move over Catcher in the Rye – Jude Keffy-Horn is a far more likeable hero than Holden Caulfield and [spoiler alert] this book even has a happy ending. Sort of.
Show More
Teddy and his best friend Jude Keffy-Horn, two small-town rebels desperate for their next high. We never meet Teddy’s mum, who abandons him the day the story begins, but Jude is the adopted son of an aging hippy, whose mothering skills dissipated in a cloud of marijuana smoke: Jude was born with probable foetal alcohol syndrome, so it’s likely his birth-mother was no loss either.
Within a few hours of our meeting him, Teddy is dead, killed by a mixture of cocaine, Freon gas and hypothermia, leaving Jude bereft and determined to escape reality through whatever means possible and, desperate, his hapless mother sends him to New York to live with her husband, a successful drug dealer.
Up-town New York teen Eliza, the daughter of Jude’s absent dad’s girlfriend, is pregnant by Teddy [whom she gave the cocaine that was responsible for his death] and hooks up with tattooist-cum-musician Johnny, Teddy’s half brother.
Yes, it all sounds incredibly complicated but it isn’t really: this is a well-written and moving tribute to a world completely alien to me, the ‘straight-edge’ culture, a punk music movement which regarded the body as a temple, condemning sex, drugs, alcohol and any physical or dietary impurity [such as meat or coffee] as unclean.
Road trips and musicians, pregnancy and sexuality, homosexuality and homophobia, Aids and homelessness, Hare Krishna and spirituality, love and redemption are just some of the themes explored in this novel. Move over Catcher in the Rye – Jude Keffy-Horn is a far more likeable hero than Holden Caulfield and [spoiler alert] this book even has a happy ending. Sort of.
Show Less
LibraryThing member melissarochelle
I had pretty high hopes for this one and it just didn't quite meet my expectations. It isn't a bad book, but it was difficult for me to relate to any of the characters -- none of them were particularly likeable. In fact Teddy & Jude kind of reminded me of a couple of characters I briefly met when I
Show More
tried to read JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy. Show Less
LibraryThing member KristySP
Truly beautiful book. I've been noticing, lately, how some authors have the gift of writing compassionately, without judgement, about their characters and their characters behavior. Ten Thousand Saints is a great example of that. Eleanor Henderson has drawn her characters so accurately and with
I didn't want this book to end--I actually started to slow down near the end, to prolong my reading experience. Im excited to see what else this author can show us, as this is her first novel! And she's only 26 or something. When did I get so old?
Show More
such sensitivity that you really come to love and care about them and their fate. I didn't want this book to end--I actually started to slow down near the end, to prolong my reading experience. Im excited to see what else this author can show us, as this is her first novel! And she's only 26 or something. When did I get so old?
Show Less
LibraryThing member sarahzilkastarke
I figured out this book about 30 pages in. So I wouldn't call it great. It was a coming of age story but not the normal kid doesn't fit in but finds friends then it's all ok. There is sex, drugs and rock and roll to spare but very little substance. Very twisted plot though. Step sister sleeps with
Show More
step brother's best friend and gets pregnant. friend dies in a drug overdose. Girl marries the brother of her baby's daddy but falls for step brother. Girl goes to live with mom's boyfriend and then his ex wife (mom of her step brother). And on and on. But there wasn't any excitement any plot really. They travel start a band but don't really ever DO anything. After 400 pages that is beyond a bore. Show Less
LibraryThing member kishields
Loved this book primarily for the details of the setting: 1980s lower east side and alphabet city, the straight edge scene, Burlington, Vermont and small-town teenage boredom. Aside from that, I can't say I cared much about the characters or plot, which seemed to take forever to get where it was
Show More
going. Some elements were simply thrown into the mix and never picked up again, such as a character's possible fetal alcohol syndrome. Show Less
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
It was in the early stages of this novel, when 'bongs' were being mentioned regularly, and I had to admit I didn't know what a bong was, that I began to suspect I may be unqualified to read it. Books involving drugs often leave me confused, but in this case it was more fighting off boredom. There
Show More
were interesting bits, small moments of drama, and a bit of humour (the militant vegetarians attacking the barbecue with 'piss-filled water guns' was excellent), but in between I found it tedious. I detected a determination to portray the characters' issues with drugs in a way that wasn't judgemental or disapproving, but I still found it hard to sympathise with any of them; mostly I just wanted them to get over themselves. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rdra1962
A very interesting look at teens in the 80's - drugs, the punk/straight-edge movement ( I was very aware of the punk scene, but somehow knew nothing about the straight-edge stuff) the AIDS crisis, NYC before the clean-up, and the remainders of the hippie culture in Vermont. A bit long and draggy in
Show More
parts, especially for a book that falls into the YA realm. I did not really like any of the characters, which meant I didn't really care too much about what happened to them. Show Less
LibraryThing member Samchan
Before I read Ten Thousand Saints, I had no idea that such a thing as straight edge punk existed. And for that alone, it's earned its two stars. But alas,I can't give it anything higher than that because halfway into the novel, I was bored out of my mind. I didn't care about what happened to the
Show More
characters. It became a chore to finish, which was a shame since it had a promising premise. Show Less
LibraryThing member Triduana
I struggled with this book. I'd say it was my least enjoyable read of 2014. In fact, there's very little I liked about it. The main reason for this is probably due to my having limited knowledge of New York, in the 80s or at any other time, or punk culture, or straight edge (which I'd never heard
As others have said, there is an awful lot going on. It is as though the author had a list of 'things that went on in 80s New York' and decided that all of them had to go into this story. It led to a confusing plot that went in many directions all at once, and I lost what the main gist of the story was. There were too many characters to follow. Sadly, I didn't find myself liking or caring about any of them. I also got bored with the narration, which often came in large chunks that didn't really add much to the story (hence the skim-reading).
I didn't really realise what the main theme of the book was before I started reading (I felt the blurb on the cover was misleading) or I doubt I would have read it. But it did give me an insight into a time period that I was unaware of before so it isn't all negative.
Show More
of) so much of it was lost on me to begin with. But I got to the end of the book, albeit by skim-reading much of it.As others have said, there is an awful lot going on. It is as though the author had a list of 'things that went on in 80s New York' and decided that all of them had to go into this story. It led to a confusing plot that went in many directions all at once, and I lost what the main gist of the story was. There were too many characters to follow. Sadly, I didn't find myself liking or caring about any of them. I also got bored with the narration, which often came in large chunks that didn't really add much to the story (hence the skim-reading).
I didn't really realise what the main theme of the book was before I started reading (I felt the blurb on the cover was misleading) or I doubt I would have read it. But it did give me an insight into a time period that I was unaware of before so it isn't all negative.
Show Less
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2013)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — 2011)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction & Poetry — 2011)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Fiction — 2011)
Language
Original publication date
2011-06-07