Reviews

Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers by Jillian Quint, Kyle Minor, Matt Kellogg

torts's review

4.0

I don't think I'd re-read any of these essays, and I'm kind of baffled by the choice of "winner" for the essay-contest facet of the compilation. BUT the voices were very much those of twenty-somethings, occasionally insightful and always self-consciously critical of the modern world. Plenty of religion and technology and alienation and searching for meaning and all that quarter-life-crisis post-post-modern nonsense. In a kind of reassuringly familiar way. One that's well-written.

bauermeyers's review

3.0

This book honestly helped put my life in perspective. My problems aren't quite so bad as some revealed by the essayists in this book. Some of them are self-indulgent an I can't criticize them for that. Although not all the essays were interesting or provoking, some were and those were the ones that made the book worth reading.

otterno11's review

4.0

I was recommended this book by the instructor of a creative non-fiction writing class I recently took, and it turns out that I am glad to have read it. A diverse and varied collection of essays reflecting on the various conflicting feelings and goals of contemporary North Americans as they navigate the hazy period between adolescence and adulthood, “Twentysomething Essays from Twentysomething Writers,” was among the more interesting such collections I have read, in spite of having been written back in 2006. People from a wide variety of backgrounds and situations express their feelings and experiences of their lives so far, from living at home, being sent to war, going to graduate school, or even starting a family. Some are heartrending, such as Jennifer Glaser's “Sex and the Sickbed,” while some are humorous such as Eli James' “Finding the Beat.” Most, like life, fall in between. Reading these essays can provide a window into the minds of 20 somethings, for those both older, younger, or even of the same age. The best of the group are evocative, well written stories that capture the conflicting emotions of life. The least successful essays in the collection, I feel, are the ones that try to deal too much with trying to define or analyze some overlying “theme” of this generation, while my favorites simply write deft and honest renderings of daily life. Eula Biss' “Goodbye to All That” is probably the best in the collection, but I really identified with “In Between Places” by Mary Kate Frank. In the end, this may be the most interesting and thought provoking collection of works on this subject I have seen.