Siera Cerny Loves American Skin

By Venus Zine Staff
Published: April 23rd, 2010 | 4:00pm

American Skin by Don De Grazia (Scribner, 2000) is one of those novels that I can’t seem to get enough of: no matter how many times I come back to it I always find new reasons to love it.

The story goes something like this: After his parents are arrested on drug charges and his sister is taken into state custody, 17-year-old Alex Verdi decides to torch his rural Illinois farmhouse and run away to Chicago. Like so many beloved coming-of-age protagonists (think Holden Caulfield), he finds himself with nobody to turn to in a big city full of people who suck. What’s a boy to do but find a home among a multiracial group of anti-Nazi skinheads? And that’s just the beginning.

De Grazia's Verdi portrays the confusion and excitement of young adulthood with a subtle air of humorous truth, artfully lacing it throughout the story. He chronicles experiences with love and loss, sex and rebellion, and fear and vulnerability as he traces his life's path, starting with a gig as a bouncer at a punk-rock club. Over the course of the novel, Verdi gets exiled from the city and forced into attending Army boot camp. Eventually, he finds work on the campus of a university he desperately wants to attend.

Throughout the book De Grazia not only provides a distinguished glimpse into the skinhead subculture in America, but also takes an unapologetic, philosophical look at class, religion, ethics, family, and the virtues that make up life in this lovely, sometimes contradictory country. And he does it without being preachy or overbearing. American Skin has become timeless in my mind. I recommend it to anyone looking for an absorbing read.

Siera Cerny is a Venus Zine editorial intern