A review by cdale8
Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun

3.0

2.5, really. I read this the same year it was published, but felt that while the author acknowledged the range of Gen X as 1965 to 1979, the focus was really on those that experienced their tweens and teens in the early 90s and are now just entering perimenopause/online dating/end of fertility rather than the 50+ set that are sending kids off to college, becoming grandparents, or going through their parents' estates. I mostly enjoyed the later chapters that dealt with things like menopause and the HRT debacle of the early noughts with the Boomers, mid-life examinations of Gen X responsibilities (to both career, kids, and parents - and grandkids), divorce in Gen X and how that differs from other generations with respect to the childhood experiences of the 80s, and the still-present glass ceiling. I find it telling that the author forgets about the Silent Generation -- between the Greatest Generation and the Boomers -- because these were, by and large, the parents of early Gen X, and could be rather disaffected themselves. They were born during the Great Depression and before the US entered WWII, but were not old enough to realize their place in that history. They were tut-tutted by the Greatest Generation that made WWII sacrifices and rebuilt the post-war economy, but then already had family responsibilities during the time of the civil rights movement, Free Love, and Vietnam. It is no surprise, then, that the older Gen X (1965-1972) would be different than the Boomer-raised younger Gen X. For the life of me, in less than a week I have forgotten what the earlier chapters were about without having to skim back through, because the theme all seems to run together: We can't sleep because there's too much to do.