I just finished reading Jeff Gordinier’s book “X Saves the World.” We’ve mentioned it a couple of times on the blog (here and here), so as I set it down I thought, ‘well this was a pretty darn good book; maybe I should fashion a little review of sorts for our readers.’ But, as I set myself up for this task, I realize that I haven’t written a book review since Grade 8. In the world of Amazon rating systems and sites like Rotten Tomatoes, does anyone even read individual reviews anymore? Moreover, why would I bore myself with the seriousness of writing a review?

So, let me take a slightly different approach. As I read non-fiction books such as this one, I have a habit of folding the corners of pages where I feel the author has touched on something interesting or struck me with a particularly masterful piece of literary prose. The end result is that if I ever want to flip through the book again, I already know where the “best of” sections are. My copy of X Saves the World has a fair number of folder corners, so instead of a full-blown review, I present you with a very limited teaser of “best of” X Saves the World quotes, as selected by me. Think of it as a book/blog version of a user-generated movie trailer on You Tube (unsanctioned by Gordinier, so hopefully he doesn’t mind).

Length: 189 pages

Tag line: “How Generation X Got the Shaft, But Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking.”

Rating: I give it a 4/5

Overall tone: Insightful and humorous

Audience: Gordinier says, “X is more a sensibility than a rigidly confined demographic.” This makes sense. Even though I’m not a true Gen Xer by some demographic accounts (b. 1978), I continuously found myself being stopped throughout the book by a faint tapping on my shoulder; Psst… I think he’s talking about you.

From the book:

“Generation X has marinated in the fat of boomer mythology for so long now that we’re like Keanu Reaves in The Matrix when he’s hooked up to all those tubes and wires in a tub of gelatine. We don’t even notice.”

“Kitsch is that form of sentimental propaganda in which the fecal truths of human existence are erased from a snapshot, excised from a speech, and bleeped out of a song. [... it] might just be the thing that united Xers in scorn.”

“You know that you’ve become a full-fledged adult when it dawns on you that MTV doesn’t love you anymore.”

“If you go back and watch Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory now, it tells you not only everything you need to know about what Xers believe in, but everything you need to know about why Xers find the millennials so exasperating and cracked. [...] The millennials seemed to revel in doing exactly what the bad Wonka kids did—who were Paris Hilton and Clay Aiken other than updated models of Veruca Salt and Mike Teavee?—and yet they were not punished at all. They were rewarded. America loved them. Theirs was the infinite jest.”

“People like to say Woodstock changed the world. A few people went back to the garden, poked around in the weeds, and then turned around and drove home to Syosset to practice corporate law. Woodstock didn’t change anything other than the composition of some agricultural soil in upstate New York.”

“The boomers never came up with anything that approaches the hugeness of Google. John Lennon got bitch-slapped for saying the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, but Google, brainchild of Gen Xers Larry Page and Sergey Brin, gives God a run for His money.”

There, that’s all you get. Now go grab the book.

For more Gen X insights, also read Gordinier’s article, “The Return of the Yuppie,” from Details, which made me crack up. It’s funny because it’s true…