Book: Jeneration X
Author(s): Jen Lancaster
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: NAL Hardcover
Publication Date: May 2012
Why I Picked It Up: I love me some Jen Lancaster.


I'm a longtime Jen Lancaster fan. I first read Bitter is the New Black and quickly tore through Bright Lights, Big Ass which is the only other book she had out at the time. I have really enjoyed all her subsequent books, and have also become a regular reader of her blog. Before she was a writer of memoirs and one piece of fiction, she was a blogger, an endeavor she started during an extended period of unemployment. I have to say there is not one book that I think I like more than any other, though if I had to I pick one I liked least I would have to say I enjoyed her one work of fiction, If You Were Here, less than any of her memoirs. This has absolutely nothing to do with the novel,  and everything to do with that I just like her so much!


Jen Lancaster has the most valuable of skills for the memoir writer in that she is completely honest and absolutely fearless in the possibility of looking silly. Also, apart from her writing, which is tight, full of humor, and very intelligent, I can absolutely picture myself turning into her in that I too have very little patience for stupidity and being uncomfortable, have a deep attachment to wine, and am, at times, a little creepy about my pets. Basically, I'm a total fan girl, specifically have avoided her Washington, DC signings as I would make a super fool of myself, and possibly want her to adopt me. Before this turns into (more of) a love letter to Jen Lancaster lets turn to her newest book.


Lancaster's latest memoir is a collection of stories/essays which highlight different lessons she sees as essential to adulthood, as well as a pay homage to her own generation, which she feels is the one that is 'working' in today's world, with boomers sinking their money into nonsensical business ventures and the younger generation laying in their parent's darkened basements, playing Words with Friends on their iPods, and waiting for an employer to walk through the door and beg them to work. As a member of the younger working generation who may or may not be having a non-sexual affair with her various iProducts I feel I should possibly take offense at this description, but truly I get it. I would love to discount myself from this group and point to my 13 years of official work life (I'll be 28 at the end of May) or my current 2 jobs, but really can't as I too have found myself whining about what  to anyone older than me is just paying dues in the working world. And therein is the charm of Lancaster as such blunt honesty presented in such a humorous way forces the reader to not only accept their own flaws, but also to laugh at themselves. I also really enjoyed this book as someone who has recently landed in the first position that I consider a Career rather than just a job and because of that have begun to think about 'growing up'. This book reminds me that I don't have to figure it out immediately (Lancaster recounts several 'backslides'), nor do I have completely give up my antics (Lancaster gets hammered in her college stomping grounds), trashy television (Lancaster enjoys much of the same terrible reality TV and sitcoms I do), or childish loves (Lancaster collects Mad Men Barbies). It's actually pretty comforting.


My rating: Definitely pick it up sooner rather than later!


*Image from Goodreads.