Rating: 
Summary: Surprising!
Review: I read this book for a class I was taking and I didn't expect much from it. But I was wrong. This is a very good book and the information is both surprising and relevant. I probably would not have read this book except for my class and I would have missed out on a lot.
Rating: 
Summary: Shallow look at this subject.
Review: I was really disappointed with this book. I was hoping the author would spend more time talking about the individual characters, and draw some conclusions and ideas from this -- instead she was just constantly throwing out reasons for teenage angst based on her _personal_ experiences. It seemed like the intention of the book was to show how she would uncover something interesting by immersing herself with the kids... instead she spends most of the book talking about herself instead.
Rating:
Summary: Not a book, but a painting!
Review: Ms Gaines has characterized the culture of the generation that was supposed to inherit the American dream. The explosion of suburbia over the past 50 years has produced a generation struggling with the norms of it's own culture.Ms. Gaines' "undercover" work in producing this book is superb. She socialized with a group of teenagers to learn about the culture that seems so odd to outsiders, and seems so destructive. She however does not have a "cold, scientific" style -- rather she becomes part of the group honestly. She does not pretend to be one of them. She treats the subject with respect, love, and an open mind. The result is truly a rich picture of a culture most people never see or frequently don't understand.
Rating:
Summary: Former Bergenfield Burn-Out Hates This Book
Review: My name is Scott Roberts; and I lived in Bergenfield in 1987; I smoked dope with Cheryl Burress and friends. I was a part of the burn-out "culture" of the time. This book, Donna Gaines' analysis, and the majority of press reportage about Bergenfield and the mentality and sociology of the people who lived there are flat-out wrong. Gaines' misguided self-serving book is a proof of observer bias; she went in there expecting to see something and when it wasn't there she altered things to make it work the way she wanted.
Rating:
Summary: Former Bergenfield Burn-Out Hates This Book
Review: My name is Scott Roberts; and I lived in Bergenfield in 1987; I smoked dope with Cheryl Burress and friends. I was a part of the burn-out "culture" of the time. This book, Donna Gaines' analysis, and the majority of press reportage about Bergenfield and the mentality and sociology of the people who lived there are flat-out wrong. Gaines' misguided self-serving book is a proof of observer bias; she went in there expecting to see something and when it wasn't there she altered things to make it work the way she wanted.
Rating:
Summary: Former Bergenfield Burn-Out Hates This Book
Review: My name is Scott Roberts; and I lived in Bergenfield in 1987; I smoked dope with Cheryl Burress and friends. I was a part of the burn-out "culture" of the time. This book, Donna Gaines' analysis, and the majority of press reportage about Bergenfield and the mentality and sociology of the people who lived there are flat-out wrong. Gaines' misguided self-serving book is a proof of observer bias; she went in there expecting to see something and when it wasn't there she altered things to make it work the way she wanted.
Rating:
Summary: Me! Me! Let's make this book about me!
Review: The writer claims to be in a position to be able to have a fair non-biased opinion on the situation, but unfortunately like most authors making this claim, the opposite is true. The book starts out with Gaines' introduction, trying to establish herself as a trustworthy narrator. She had been a rocker, engaging completely in the rock and roll culture since her own youth, and although now involved in her career as a journalist and social worker still considers herself a part of that culture. She had spent her life running around with sixteen your old kids claiming to understand them. Although I have no doubt that a older researcher could understand and fairly study youth culture to some extent, the idea of a woman in her late forties or early fifties running around befriending street kids did not sit well. She is completely engaged in the society that she is trying to study and can therefore never have a fair portrayal of it, never stepping back to take in the big picture. The book attempts to explore what's wrong with the teen generation in the late 1980s. The analysis focuses mostly on street kids from the suburbs who care about nothing more than rock and roll. I was instantly suspect, since this is exactly how Gaines described her own childhood. She starts with a quadruple suicide in New Jersey and works out from there analyzing the teen crisis with no attention paid to proper research techniques. The book goes on to be a 270-page stream of consciousness containing no facts. It glorifies the suburban "burnout" lifestyle and becomes an autobiographical novel about Gaines' childhood.
Rating: 
Summary: Valuable look at youth culture
Review: While to a seasoned scholar in the discipline of the sociology of youth this book may seem "simplistic," it drew me into the discipline. Not only did Donna Gaines become part of the suburban kids world, but she gave them a voice...The most fascinating aspect I found was the symoblism of rebellion and the profound meaning it carries. For this alone, this book is valuable.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable look at youth culture
Review: While to a seasoned scholar in the discipline of the sociology of youth this book may seem "simplistic," it drew me into the discipline. Not only did Donna Gaines become part of the suburban kids world, but she gave them a voice...The most fascinating aspect I found was the symoblism of rebellion and the profound meaning it carries. For this alone, this book is valuable.
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