Salad Days

This is the memoir of a young man from Kansas who becomes a singer in a punk band. The author delves far beneath the shallow surface of hair and clothes, and presents a portrait of a guy searching for his place in the world. He learns a lot of lessons along the way, and his readers are the better for it. Salad Days is honest, poignant, romantic, and a fast read. I highly recommend it.

Love this book, sadly I gave my signed well worn book to a great friend as a gift.

I was really hoping for more. So much wrong with this book, but a few big problems I just couldn't get past. First is the apparent attempt to put a textual soundtrack into the story. Rather than making casual references, the story was nearly stopped on occasion in order to get in the name of every band and every song that Frank/Romalotti ever played or heard. Now, I grew up in the punk scene too, so I "get it" but there's a reason I bought a book and not a punk cd.Another problem I had was character development. They seem pretty flat with their quirkiness left wholly unexplained and their personalities sometimes make a 180 degree change simply because it's convenient for the scenario... or so it seems. It was almost too inconsistent to get a good sense of each character at all.The writing is ridiculously verbose. The plot meandering. Long winded descriptions of every line for line telephone conversation exhausting. There could not have been an editor involved in this process, which is why I'm guessing it was self-published.Save yourself. Read a bathroom stall wall before buying this.

Let me tell you this book is the tops.It's not about salad. But yes - this dude is a good story teller and you root for him and you are super psyched when it all comes together.

This book is amazing

I really dig the music that would be the soundtrack to this tale, but the story itself seriously lacks substance.The main character, Frank, is wound up extremely tight and he and his buddies seem to take themselves so seriously that there is no room for humor in their lives. Isn't being young supposed to be fun? At least some of the time?Frank is straight edge (thankfully not militant) and has no interest in sex but we're not informed as to how his beliefs were formed. It's as if his rigorous self discipline was magically bestowed upon him.There are too many minor characters that drift in and out of his life without making much of an impact on Frank or the reader such that when some of them appear later in the story, one has difficulty recalling who they are. Not that it really matters anyway since they don't add anything to the story line.I also am not a fan of the overly descriptive writing style that beats minor plot points to death and completely overlooks themes that would make the story at least somewhat compelling.I do like the cover, but I wish I never bothered this one. It really is that bad.

Read this if you hate punk rock and wish to revel in it's destruction. Pointless whining by spoiled jerk who was lucky enough to join his favorite band, and paid them and their other fans back by ruining the band with self-indulgent noodling, then wrote this little yawn fest about it, thouroughly slagging all band members except his equally lame soon to be music professor cohort. Full of insights into one weenie's sweaty feelings of self importance, and love for a ballerina. I couldn't possibly be more sorry to have read this. Worse than Jack Chick. Way worse.

Everyone can remember a place in their life growing up when a certain band or song or movie so completely captured a moment In time for them that they couldn't help but be forever changed. This book Is that for me, and it was so engrossing that I couldn't put it down!! The story centers around an outcast punk, straight edge, vegan, named Frank whom we follow from his teenage years In a small red neck farming town of Iola, KS during the thriving 1980's punk rock and hardcore movements through his college years with his then struggling DIY band. Everything about Frank is against the grain from his appearance to his lifestyle and political views and last but not least of all his music which, is high lighted through out the book so much so It's like your getting the soundtrack to Frank's life something I liked very much. (It also made me want to go through my record collection again to listen to all these old bands I once loved as a teen.) The flow and detail In which Romalotti writes is so stream of conscious In its way that you not only identify with the characters and their personalities you become them!! Living every moment's emotion from the ground up inside out. This book is no doubt a labor of love for the author full of heart, sweat, blood, and tears on every page and does everything a good story should!! So from one punk to another go get this book!! its not only worth your time but your money and that's something rare these days.