Book review: Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

Despite my overarching cynicism about books about musicians, I was really primed to like Eleanor Henderson's Ten Thousand Saints. The overall concept for the book is compelling: without revealing too much of the plot, it's about some kids outgrowing the Burlington, VT hardcore scene and moving to the East Village in the late 80s where some of them become Hare Krishnas and/or join various straight-edge bands. There ought to be a lot of material to work with in this particular era but unfortunately the book as a whole is, frankly, corny.

To start with, one of the main characters is named Jude, which is on one level ironic, because he is a straight-edge punk who rejects the hippie upbringing that led his parents to name him after a Beatles song, and on the other hand apt, because he is charged with keeping the faith in uncertain times. No real person's name operates on so many symbolic levels, and given that the rest of the book isn't a stylized allegory, this decision feels awkward and heavy-handed.

The plot is also clumsily constructed. The impending death of an important character is announced in the second sentence and occurs at the end of the second chapter, leaving the reader with very little impression of him. Unfortunately, the appeal of much of the rest of the action hinges on the idea that the reader will find this character as compelling as the other characters evidently do, which I found very difficult on such limited acquaintance.

Finally, it falls into the familiar writing-about-music-is-like-dancing-about-architecture problem that most books about bands written by non-musicians do. The descriptions of what music sounds like are all wildly goofy and, to my mind, do not especially accurately capture hardcore specifically. I don't think the author is a poser, she references wide array of the bands you would expect–Warzone, Youth of Today, etc.–although I must say I know little enough about the scene to be able to fact-check whether they are the "right" bands to reference.

I will grant that the name she chose for one character's band, Army of One, is very convincing. Many books about bands get the names just appallingly wrong.

I will also note that the book was made into a movie, starring Ethan Hawke, in 2015. The trailer looks and sounds pretty dire and is soundtracked with the most insipid twinkly-sounding early 2000s indie you could possibly picture. I'll let you know if morbid curiosity drives me to watch it someday.