Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book from Grove Press via EedlweissPlus, free of charge, for review purposes on this blog. No compensation, monetary o in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it, all opinions are my own
Got a friend who is in middle age, or approaching it?
THIS is the book you need to give them, this holiday season!
Synopsis:
A generation-defining exploration of the new midlife crisis facing Gen X women and the unique circumstances that have brought them to this point, Why We Can’t Sleep is a lively successor to Passages by Gail Sheehy and The Defining Decade by Meg Jay
When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too?
Calhoun decided to find some answers. She looked into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages, and divorce data. At every turn, she saw a pattern: sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age, problems that were being largely overlooked.
Speaking with women across America about their experiences as the generation raised to “have it all,” Calhoun found that most were exhausted, terrified about money, under-employed, and overwhelmed. Instead of being heard, they were told instead to lean in, take “me-time,” or make a chore chart to get their lives and homes in order.
In Why We Can’t Sleep, Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X’s predicament and offers solutions for how to pull oneself out of the abyss—and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering, and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them.
When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too?
Calhoun decided to find some answers. She looked into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages, and divorce data. At every turn, she saw a pattern: sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age, problems that were being largely overlooked.
Speaking with women across America about their experiences as the generation raised to “have it all,” Calhoun found that most were exhausted, terrified about money, under-employed, and overwhelmed. Instead of being heard, they were told instead to lean in, take “me-time,” or make a chore chart to get their lives and homes in order.
In Why We Can’t Sleep, Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X’s predicament and offers solutions for how to pull oneself out of the abyss—and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering, and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them.
Review:
So waht keeps us Gen X's up all night?
Well, THIS book will for starters- seriously, I read it in ONE sitting, late into the early. morning!
Why? Becauce you, my readers born between 1964 and 1980, really DO have a LOT to keep you up at night, with restless thoughts (yes, Melatonin tablets WERE made for our generation!). And the best news (maybe???), is that you are NOT alone! You survivors of latch key parenting, learned how to cope and find solutions, but guess what? You're tired. REALLY tired and mentally worn out. And the bad news is that the stats for Gen X, all lovingly presented in this book, will show you that far from being alone, your generation is collectively feeling the fall out from being raised in an amazing genertaional era. Yup, with the good, comes the bad. sigh....
If you can't find yourself in this book, then glory hallalejuah you are that 1% who somehow had a bubble to cushion you. The rest of us? You're here-every single one of you. In this book you will see that we really are the middle children of the generations, and yes, Gen Y and Millenials HAVE learned from what happened to us, so they are doing things differently to avoid the MENTAL and emotional problems we have. If that means not owning homes or even seeking the prosperity our parents had, then oh well. At least they aren't as stressed as we are. In some ways, the book will really make you more depressed, to realize that the failure of the 'American Dream' was in part based on unachievable expectations our Boomer mothers and culture based on us.
Rembember the Enjoli commercial? Work all day, come home cook dinner, happy family and still have time for keeping that spark in your marriage? We may have helped to break down professional barries for women and minorities, BUT what wasn't expected was how busy and tired we would end up being, trying to keep it all together and running. We've been working 2-3 jobs, when you add in homemaking and taking care of the kids and spouses, then add in a part time job with all the volunteering we do. And our parents generation was the one who needed Valium? It's amazing we're not all addicted/alcoholics, to keep up!
This book is SO SO SO much of an eye opener, it's the present you NEED to give not only to yourself, but to your sisters, friends and coworkers. Maybe by KNOWING it's ok to have our own mid-life crises, we can figure out together how to end up on the other side happy and well- slept!
About the Author:
ADA CALHOUN is the author of the memoir Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, named an Amazon Book of the Month and one of the top ten memoirs of 2017 by W magazine; and the history St. Marks Is Dead, one of the best books of 2015, according to Kirkus and the Boston Globe. She has collaborated on several New York Times bestsellers, and written for the New York Times, New York, and The New Republic.
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