Memoirs of a Go-Go Dancer

by Justin Sheedy

MEMOIRS OF A GO-GO DANCER! Justin Sheedy's first job out of school was a symbol of his rebellion against the 1980s - a decade so lame it cried out for any other. Crackernight, the annual fireworks festival of his childhood, was gone. So was childhood. Justin's teenage would be a search for new fireworks. He would find them. In his legendary schoolteachers, in questioning his elders, in playing rock and roll, in marching against nuclear madness, and in that scariest of all things known to Man: GIRLS. And all that was before he became a Go-Go Dancer! Then the fun REALLY started...

252 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2014

About the author

Justin Sheedy had his first book, "Goodbye Crackernight", published in 2009, a comic memoir of growing up in 1970s Australia, back in a long-lost era when a child’s proudest possession was not a smart phone but a second-hand bike. "Goodbye Crackernight" was so warmly received by Australian readers that it secured Justin a place on the program of the prestigious Byron Bay Writers’ Festival 2010. In 2012 Justin released "Nor the Years Condemn", an historical fiction based on the stunning true story of the young Australian fighter pilots of World War Two. A tale as exhilaratingly heroic as it is tragic, "Nor the Years Condemn" is a portrait of shining young men destined never to grow old, and of those who do: the survivors 'condemned by the years', and to their memory of friends who remain forever young. In 2013 Justin released "Ghosts of the Empire", Book 2 in his "Nor the Years Condemn" series, and to Rave Reviews. In 2014 he released "Memoirs of a Go-Go Dancer", his rock & roll portrait of 1980s teenage under the threat of nuclear annihilation before he ever kissed a girl and his long-awaited sequel to "Goodbye Crackernight". He has just released his 5th book, "No Greater Love", Book 3 in his "Nor the Years Condemn" trilogy, to rave reviews & press coverage and sell-out book-signings. His books are available in ebook & paperback at Amazon, Dymocks bookstores, Gleebooks, Berkelouw Books, Booktopia, Waterstones Online, Barnes & Noble Online, The Book Depository and via ALL bookstores & online stores.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The eighties was a difficult time to live in, yet alone a time to launch on the journey of self discovery. This sequel to Goodbye Crackernight reads more like a counselling session with the reader as the counsellor. Here, young Sheedy is exorcising his teenage demons, ready to open up the next chapter of his life. It is, for the most part, an unsettling read.

Don't get me wrong. this is not a bad thing. Again, Sheedy has managed to effortlessly transport us in to his world. The world of the 1980s, an uncomfortable decade wedged in between the safe seventies and the naughty nineties. The author is once again in front of you, talking to you alone, yet rather than on a comfortable bike ride, it's in a noisy, overpopulated student bar.

Teenage angst hits you full blast and those of us who were teenagers in the eighties, the memories and feelings which are evoked throughout Memoirs of a Go-Go Dancer are bittersweet. I did find this book vaguely unsettling, but only in so much as if I was a boy, this would certainly have been my life. The places mentioned, we could have crossed paths without even knowing it. A strangely familiar story, likes and dislikes, thoughts and feelings...all very familiar, but for me a fantastic read. As always an engaging, intelligent, funny, slightly self-effacing, warm and loving account of the more difficult years of late childhood and early adulthood. I would recommend this book to anyone, no matter where they grew up.