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The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way (And It Wasn’t My Fault) (And I’ll Never Do It Again) (2014)

by P.J. O'Rourke(Favorite Author)

3.14 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0802121977 (ISBN13: 9780802121974)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Atlantic Monthly Press

review 1: This is the latest book by a famous american humorist, (btw famous american humorist is defined in an update of a book by the star of From Dusk till Dawn 3 as someone who critics find hilarious but everyone else needs to have explained to them using diagrams and an encyclopaedia) about the experience of growing up in the 50's and 60's and is thus incredibly inciteful and memory inducing to any Baby Boomers out there of which I am not one of them so it came across as one of those you had to be there things which is aimed at the type of person who wasn't actually there and has no interest in knowing what it is like there, and while occasionally extremely funny the insights just aren't that insightful if you treat it as cultural commentary, if however you treat it a autobiogr... moreaphy it makes more sense.
review 2: O'Rourke is absolutely brilliant in this book - but there may be some generational differences showing. Before I wrote this review, I read the others. A lot of the objections to the book come down to "I just don't get it."O'Rourke divides the Boomers into four classes - Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores and Frosh. (The last ones born in 1964) I was born a senior (1946) - so many of the anecdotes were things that I either lived through or experienced. He makes two serious points. First, he argues that the arbitrary definition of a boomer is probably not useful - much of the experience that the seniors and juniors had - especially their proximity to WWII - was simply not there for the younger boomers. We were young adults when many of the transformative experiences were happening (the pill, drugs, changing roles, etc) but the younger ones grew into young adulthood only after many of those transitions had been made. Second, he argues that the Boomers actually did not do much - they have not had a particularly good record as political figures, they actually went to Woodstock but did not produce it. The anthems of the boomers were actually written mostly by people in the prior generation. His descriptions of Margaret Mead and Ayn Rand are devastatingly funny. There are some passages that I simply wanted to go back and re-read several times. I am only going to offer one quote from the book - he describes the engineers who developed the Plymouth Valiant as "six guys who did not speak the same language and worked in total darkness." His interposition of great quotes and statistics about the generation are helpful in understanding the true impact of a generation that started with 70+ million members. So while he writes with humor he also has some significant substance.If you were born in the first couple of years of the trend - say through the mid-1950s you will get all of this. And unless you lived in a cave during your first 30 years or are so far to the left or the right you cannot stand being poked fun at - you will enjoy this book. If you were born either much earlier or later than that you might still enjoy this latest piece from a writer who is arguably the greatest living American humorist. less

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