Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats

May 15, 2018
Many readers think of post-WWII mass-market paperbacks as being mostly crime fiction, but the paperback spinners contained multitudes, as this fascinating compendium reminds us. The focus here is on youthsploitation novels: books that depicted youth culture, however inaccurately, often influencing that very culture in the process. Australians McIntyre and Nette are well versed in both countercultures and pulp fiction, and while there is a certain English/Australian emphasis, the huge U.S. market comprises the bulk of the coverage. Drawing on nearly two dozen contributors, and incorporating essays, interviews, and profiles of authors and notable titles, they survey the lurid literature written about and for juvenile delinquents, beats and bohemians, disaffected British youth, hippies and other counterculture types, musicians and groupies, and bikers and wannabes. In the final chapter, they demonstrate the important role pulpy teen novels played in the rise of today's YA juggernaut. The lurid, lewd, hilarious, awful, and awesome book-cover reproductions are an obvious draw, but there's scholarship here, too. A highlight for fans of low culture.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)