The IBIC Guide to Books About Generation X

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Remarks from the IBIC Editor's Journal

November 15, 1994

As a '61 baby, I'm perched on the cusp between Baby Boom and Generation X. I spent my twenties in an Xerish state of anomie combined with a Boomerishly insincere flirtation with Bohemianism. Then, since marrying at 28, I have spent the last five years exerting an enormous amount of effort--full-time work plus law school at night--simply to attain a decent Boomeresque standard of living for self and family. So I identify with neither the meritocratic Clinonesque Boomers who flock to our nation's capital nor with those Xers who accept the grunge lifestyle with its peripheral MacJobs, the ephemeral satisfactions of age cohort solidarity, and lack of health insurance. I identify more with the Depression and WWII generations whose careers were postponed and who had to work hard for everything they got.

Perhaps the foregoing explains why I couldn't finish 13TH GEN: ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE, FAIL by Neil Howe and Bill Strauss (Vintage Books, 1993). I don't doubt the premise that there is a Generation X, and that its issues and attitudes are significantly different than the Boomer generation's. My brother ('66) and sister ('68) definitely have different perspectives than I do, and some of it is generational. But 13TH GEN is not the book to read if you are interested in this stuff. In a nutshell, it is too much of a nonbook. The generalizations are sweeping. And the imitation Net dialogue is pathetic. If you are interested in this topic, skip this book, and start with Douglas Coupland's GENERATION X.


Comments from IBIC Readers

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Editor's Recommendations, Summer 1996

In this inaugural edition of IBIC's Featured Books, I'd like to draw your attention to several titles which have helped to shape my life and thinking.

  • When I was around fifteen, I came across Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's science fiction novel, INFERNO. This '70s remake of Dante's classic describes science fiction writer Allen Carpentier's descent into Hell. It's still a very fresh, accessible take on the classic. What a great movie it would make!
  • The Niven/Pournelle INFERNO immediately inspired me to read the original Divine Comedy. I've read a number of translations over the years, but my favorite is the one by Dorothy Sayers (INFERNO; PURGATORY; PARADISE). The notes are excellent, and Sayers had such a knowledgeable and witty mind that reading her prose is a pleasure in itself. (For those interested in a more contemporary translation, I should mention that Robert Pinsky received excellent notices for his 1995 THE INFERNO OF DANTE : A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION; it's a very handsome book.)
  • I also want to tell you about the late Henry Fairlie's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS TODAY, which probably did more than any other single book to galvanize me into a lifetime interest in Christianity that led me, eventually, to faith. Ironic, because Fairlie was a self-proclaimed agnostic socialist! But reading between the lines of this insightful and deeply feeling book, one realizes that the love of God cannot have been far from Fairlie's heart.
  • Finally, I should draw to your attention a more recent acquisition, the very handsome NIV STUDY BIBLE (10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) from Zondervan, indexed and bonded in leather in IBIC's theme color, burgundy (black and brown are also available). The notes to this Bible are amazing. They appear to provide you with a very substantial portion of what you need to know to have an intelligent layman's appreciation of the linguistic and historical issues involved in understanding Scripture.

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