The cliques and geeks, the jocks and princesses, the stoners, loners and losers -- did anyone ever capture the cultural essence of high-school the way writer/director John Hughes did in his 1980s teen films?

Though widely dismissed two decades ago as shallow, commercial multiplex fodder, Hughes' films are now viewed as coming-of-age classics by Gen Xers who grew up relating to the Reagan-era teen misfits in "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink" and "Some Kind of Wonderful."

Hughes' adolescent angst oeuvre is the subject of a fascinating new book, "Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes," edited by Jaime Clarke and with a forward by Ally Sheedy, who starred as the neurotic Allison in 1985's "The Breakfast Club" (here's a clip of the film's trailer).

For the most part, the essays are subjective, as the writers recall how as teenagers they related to certain characters in Hughes' films. Molly Ringwald as Samantha in "Sixteen Candles" (1984) or as Andie in "Pretty in Pink" (1986) are the most common, along with Matthew Broderick in the title role of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986). (Here's a clip of Ben Stein calling roll as Bueller's teacher.)

The self-revelatory first-person approach to the films has its drawbacks, but the book does convey the power of movies to shape teenagers' self-perception, as the writers explain how these films taught them to navigate through the social storms of high school life.

Perhaps the most interesting account is from Moon Unit Zappa. Daughter of the late rock guitar genius Frank Zappa, she gained fame as a slang-talking teenager on her father's hit single "Valley Girl."

Moon describes how, growing up in a hippie/alternative environment in Malibu, she pined for the blandly "normal" existence of Hughes' middle-class teens (most of his films were set in the prosperous northside Chicago suburbs where Hughes himself came of age).

For years, even as she socialized with some of the most famous young stars of the '80s -- Molly Ringwald dated Moon's brother Dweezil Zappa -- Moon harbored an unrequited crush on Michael Schoeffling, who played hunky Jake in "Sixteen Candles."

More than anything else, this new book reminds us why Hughes' teen films remain enduringly popular, even now that those '80s hairstyles, fashions and pop songs are so hopelessly outdated. Hughes demonstrated an ability to create human-scale sagas filled with characters we recognize -- including ourselves.

-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor