1978

In this violent, raw, and often beautiful novel, Daniel Jones captures the long-vanished Toronto where a broke teen punk could buy a beer with a two-dollar bill. Soo, Kid, Jacky, and Boy are damaged and self-destructive, losing whole days to cheap booze and pills, accidental blackouts and hospital stays. They badly want to emulate local punk idols like the Viletones and Teenage Head, but can't hold it together long enough to learn an entire song. 1978 is Jones' uncompromising literary take on the frantic energy and bleak extremes of the early Toronto punk scene, but it's also the story of a group of messed-up kids in a squalid apartment, desperately looking underneath all the attitude and filth for something real.