The Punk Ethic by Timothy DeckerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Background: Martin is a musician, a student, a son, and a loner. We follow him through about a month of his life, as he comes to terms with random things, goes to school, play music and complains about how everyone sucks. The blurb from Netgalley was such “Challenged by a teacher to actually “do” something, Martin walks a minefield of idiot friends, an unfathomable Dream Girl, high school, and relative pennilessness to prove that he can change the world.”
Review: As a kid that grew up with actual “punk kids” (and was friends with them), I can say that this feels a little more like emo kids wanting to be punk kids but don’t quite grasp all of the requirements; now, having said that, the read was pretty good, very entertaining, and even comical at times. Martin, the protagonist, is learning himself through this journal of sorts, a play by play of his daily life and how he changes day to day. He is a loner, even though he has some buddies and a musician that wants to change the world, weren’t we all at some point? I think that The Punk Ethic was very charged by what it means to be a “punk,” but did not take the leap it needed to actually make the characters seem punk…if that makes sense. They have way too much concern…
On another note, we are thrown into Marin Henry’s life and we don’t really learn a lot about him, except that he is a musician and is now on a mission to change the world, and how he is going to try to do that…but what lead up to this point? A teacher challenges him…as a punk I don’t think that would have held a lot of weight (…just sayin…). I was a little disappointed with the ending, or lack thereof and think that with a few more pages (It’s only 188) it could have improved.
Each day in the log of Martin’s life has a very detailed and beautiful sketch relating to the coming events, and I think this was the redeeming quality for me. Art is wonderful, even if your “Punk” is just whiny and confused.
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