Don't You Forget About Me

Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes

Jaime Clarke

• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781416950370
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Essays
• Index: Literature

No one captured the teen portion of the eighties as poignantly as writer-director John Hughes. Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Some Kind of Wonderful are timeless tales of love, angst, longing, and self-discovery that illuminated and assuaged the anxieties of an entire generation. Fondly nostalgic, filled with wit and surprising insights, don't you forget about me contains original essays from a skillfully chosen crop of novelists and essayists on the films' far-reaching effects on their own lives -- an irresistible read for anyone who came of age in the eighties (or just wishes they did). Featuring new writing from:
Steve Almond * Julianna Baggott * Lisa Borders * Ryan Boudinot * T Cooper * Quinn Dalton * Emily Franklin * Lisa Gabriele * Tod Goldberg * Nina de Gramont * Tara Ison * Allison Lynn * John McNally * Dan Pope * Lewis Robinson * Ben Schrank * Elizabeth Searle * Mary Sullivan * Rebecca Wolff * Moon Unit Zappa

Contributors

Steve Almond is the author of two story collections, My Life in Heavy Metal and The Evil B.B. Chow. His next book, a collection of essays, will be out in late 2007.

Julianna Baggott is the author of four novels—most recently Which Brings Me to You (cowritten with Steve Almond)—as well as three books of poems, including Lizzie Borden in Love and, forthcoming, Compulsions of Silkworms and Bees. She also writes novels for younger readers—the Anybodies trilogy—under the pen name N. E. Bode. Baggott’s work has appeared in dozens of publications, including the Best American Poetry series, Glamour, Ms., Poetry, and TriQuarterly, and has been read on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation. She teaches in Florida State University’s Creative Writing program and lives in Tallahassee with her husband and three children.

Lisa Borders’s obsession with the 1980s was channeled into her first novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, which was chosen by Pat Conroy as the winner of River City Publishing’s Fred Bonnie Award and was published in 2002. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, where she teaches creative writing at Grub Street and works as a cytotechnologist. She recently completed her second novel, The 51st State.

Ryan Boudinot is the author of The Littlest Hitler: Stories. He lives in Seattle.

T Cooper is the author of the novels Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes and Some of the Parts. Cooper is also coeditor of a collection of original stories entitled A Fictional History of the United States with Huge Chunks Missing. Cooper’s nonfiction work has appeared in various publications, including the New York Times, the New York Times Style Magazine, the Believer, and Poets & Writers, in addition to a handful of anthologies.

Quinn Dalton is the author of a novel, High Strung, and a story collection, Bulletproof Girl. Her stories and essays have appeared in literary magazines such as Glimmer Train and One Story, and in New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best as well as other anthologies. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with her husband and two daughters.

Emily Franklin is the author of two novels, The Girls’ Almanac and Liner Notes, as well as a critically acclaimed fiction series, the Principles of Love. She edited It’s a Wonderful Lie: 26 Truths About Life in Your Twenties and is coeditor of Before: Short Stories About Pregnancy from Our Top Writers and After: Short Stories About Parenting from Our Top Writers. Another collection, Eight Nights: Chanukah Essays, is forthcoming in fall 2007. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe and the Mississippi Review, among others. She still has a crush on Jake Ryan.

Lisa Gabriele is a novelist and journalist, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Vice magazine, Salon, and Glamour, among other publications, and she’s a regular contributor to Nerve. Her first novel is called Tempting Faith DiNapoli. Her essays and fiction have appeared in several anthologies, including The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003, Sex and Sensibility, and When I Was a Loser. She lives in Toronto.

Tod Goldberg is the author of the novels Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Fake Liar Cheat, as well as, most recently, the short story collection Simplify, winner of the Other Voices Short Story Collection Prize. His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Las Vegas CityLife, Jewcy, and numerous other publications. Tod Goldberg lives in La Quinta, California, and teaches creative writing at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

Nina de Gramont is the author of a collection of short stories, Of Cats and Men, and is the editor of the anthology Choice, forthcoming in the fall of 2007. Her novel, Gossip of the Starlings, will be out in August 2007. Her short stories have appeared in a variety of magazines, including Exquisite Corpse, the Cream City Review, Nerve, Post Road, and Seventeen.

Tara Ison’s first novel, A Child out of Alcatraz, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her new novel, The List, will be published in spring 2007. She is also the cowriter of the film Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.

Allison Lynn is the author of the novel Now You See It, which won both the William Faulkner Medal from the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society and the Chapter One Award from the Bronx Council on the Arts. She has written reviews and features for publications including the New York Times Book Review, the Chicago Sun-Times, People, and In Style. She lives in New York City and teaches creative writing at New York University.

John McNally is the author of two novels, America’s Report Card and The Book of Ralph, and one story collection, Troublemakers. A native of southwest Chicago, he now lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Dan Pope is the author of a novel, In the Cherry Tree. He has published short stories in the Iowa Review, McSweeney’s, Shenandoah, the Gettysburg Revie...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• FOREWORD by Ally Sheedy
• INTRODUCTION by Jaime Clarke
• JOHN HUGHES GOES DEEP: THE UNEXPECTED HEAVIOSITY OF FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF by Steve Almond
• A SLUT OR A PRUDE: THE BREAKFAST CLUB AS FEMINIST PRIMER by Julianna Baggott
• ENCHANTED NIGHT: THE MAGIC OF SIXTEEN CANDLES by Lisa Borders
• ON WEIRD SCIENCE by Ryan Boudinot
• YOU LOOK GOOD WEARING MY FUTURE, OR THE SEXUALLY AMBIGUOUS BEST FRIEND by T Cooper
• BLOWING IT: MY SIXTEEN CANDLES by Quinn Dalton
• CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE by Emily Franklin
• PRETTY IN PENURY by Lisa Gabriele
• THAT’S NOT A NAME, THAT’S A MAJOR APPLIANCE: HOW ANDREW MCCARTHY RUINED MY LIFE by Tod Goldberg
• WHICH JOHN HUGHES CHARACTER ARE YOU? by Nina de Gramont
• LA VIE EN ROSE: PRETTY IN PINK by Tara Ison
• FERRIS BUELLER: AN INFATUATION, A LIFE LESSON, AND ONE HARMLESS FAMILY ADVENTURE by Allison Lynn
• REAL MEN DON’T EAT QUICHE: THE WOES OF FERRIS BUELLER AND HIS NORTH SIDE BUDDIES by John McNally
• I DATED MOLLY RINGWALD, SORT OF by Dan Pope
• THE GHOST OF ALLY SHEEDY by Lewis Robinson
• MY MARY by Ben Schrank
• THE SCREAM, WITH LIP GLOSS by Elizabeth Searle
• MAKE A WISH: THE FIRST KISS LASTS FOREVER by Mary Sullivan
• IN WHAT WAY DOES THE AUTHOR’S USE OF THE PRISON SYMBOLIZE…?: A DEEP EGO-IDENTIFICATION WITH FERRIS BUELLER by Rebecca Wolff
• HOW JOHN HUGHES ALTERED MY LIFE by Moon Unit Zappa
• Contributors