I Was a Teenage Communist by JC Hopkins: Seriocomic Novel About Teen Communism Growing Up in Reagan Era America

 I Was a Teenage Communist by JC Hopkins: Seriocomic Novel About Teen Communism Growing Up in Reagan Era America 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The teen years are a time to explore connections to the world around us. To find ideologies that speak to us, friends that accept us, and breaking familiar patterns while discovering new ones. JC Hopkins YA novel, I Was a Teenage Communist, is about that.

In 1981 Orange County, California, a group of high school misfits are fed up with the Capitalist Materialistic Reaganomics world around them. They are interested in the philosophies expressed by Karl Marx and become fascinated by Socialism, Marxism, and Communism. Despite personal turmoil in their lives, the teens surreptitiously distribute through their school a newsletter that expresses their newfound beliefs and challenges the system that they see around them.

The protagonists are an eclectic group of outcasts. They consist of: Sunshine, a trans female trying to live her life truthfully. Davy, AKA Savior is a smooth talking philosopher fascinated with religious and spiritual questions. Geraldo is a firebrand ready to embrace the paths of his friends and older brother as his world crumbles around him. Tommy is a musician obsessed with conspiracies. Tommy's brother, Barry is the quiet leader and is described as a “legitimate red.” Finally, there's Charles, Geraldo’s older brother who is a political activist and the teens’ mentor. Through an eventful school year of bullies, romances, break ups, neglect, abuse, coming out, parental separation, activism, punishment, and politics, the kids make their voices and views heard.

I Was a Teenage Communist uses political ideologies as a framework to capture the conflicted and complex personal lives of the young protagonists. That's not to say that politics isn't important. It absolutely is in this book. These kids are motivated by the society that surrounds them. They see income inequality, American Imperialism, Reagan’s reactionary policies, jingoistic patriotic propaganda, the superficial “Greed is Good'' Yuppie culture, Christian Nationalism making its first links to the Republican party, rejection towards the LGBT+ community, and a sharp decline in women's and minorities’ rights. These are problems and issues that shaped that time period and honestly haven't gotten any better in 2024. If anything they have gotten worse. It's easy to see why someone would want to embrace a political structure that is contrary to what they are faced with every day.

Even if the Reader doesn't agree with their political ideology, what they may understand and relate to are the reasons that the protagonists embrace Communism. Everyone is looking for some reason and need that isn't being filled by their known world. Geraldo is looking to make his voice heard and a surrogate family when his actual family falls apart and are caught up in their own problems. Davy is looking for spiritual answers that aren't being fulfilled by the religion around him and artistic and creative freedom. Sunshine and Tommy are looking for acceptance towards their sexuality and gender identity. Barry is looking to make some noise. Charles is looking for a way to hold onto his ideals as maturity and stability hover near him. This is a lost group looking for a way to be found.

Politics is important to the characters in this book but what also emerges are their personal problems. Teenagers by and large are emotional, reckless, thoughtless, immature, rebellious for the sake of being rebellious, argumentative for the sake of arguing, snarky, obnoxious, inquisitive, loyal to their friends, sensitive, curious, and idealistic. The protagonists are all of these traits and more. Sometimes, they are written so broadly that they almost reach parodic or satiric proportions. However, there are also layers of humanity that make them whole figures that are meant to be understood and not laughed at.

The characters follow their Communist path as they are faced with various conflicts. Geraldo and Charles's father walked out on them and their mother responded by having an affair with a colleague. Geraldo begins to date Maria, an undocumented immigrant and the troubles that she endures make him even more determined to fight the system. Charles’ relationship with his girlfriend, April, becomes more complicated when his mother gets involved with her father.

Davy is torn between his spiritual philosophical pursuits and his basest sexual longings. He hops from girl to girl as much as he moves from one religious path to another. Tommy weighs a new romance with Sunshine and his acceptance of her identity. The cause means everything to Barry so he doesn't have much in the way of a private life. He tries to keep his friends as focused and driven as he is as they make their plans.

By far the darkest and most heartbreaking subplot is that of Sunshine's. She is comfortable with her gender identity in front of her friends and new boyfriend despite parental objections. Those objections graduate from words to actions as Sunshine's parents put her into a conversion therapy center. Hopkins does not skimp on the details about how the experience is physical and psychological torture that traumatizes her. Her ties to her friends are strengthened as they try everything that they can do to get her out. However the bonds with her parents are forever weakened as they allow such a cruel and dangerous ordeal to happen to the child that they should have loved and accepted.

I Was a Teenage Communist is a great mixture of how the political and personal affect young people. It is a book that is better read than dead.