Comments on: Talking ‘Bout My Generation (?) http://www.dystel.com/blog/2014/10/talking-bout-my-generation/ Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:15:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.15 By: Molly http://www.dystel.com/blog/2014/10/talking-bout-my-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-39174 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 00:57:15 +0000 http://www.dystel.com/?p=10716#comment-39174 I think one of the defining characteristics of Gen X is that we don’t really take well to having a Voice. I think our voice is made up of a lot of voices–a short story here, a longform blog post there, one critically acclaimed but not-much-read novel, a collection of essays. I look through lists of Gen X novelists and I’ve never heard of most of them. :-) I do like Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jennifer Egan, Donna Tartt (except that I really didn’t like The Goldfinch), Michael Chabon (although he’s a little older than Gen X but not quite a Boomer; really more Generation Jones, a term coined by yet another Jonathan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones) and Dave Eggers (except for The Circle; what was he thinking?).

In previous generations, a lot of writers didn’t really hit their stride until their 30s and 40s. Herman Wouk wrote The Caine Mutiny in his late 30s, Marjorie Morningstar at 40, and The Winds of War later than that; John Irving wrote The World According to Garp in his late 30s; Anne Tyler was in her 40s when she wrote Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and The Accidental Tourist. Gen X got a later start on just about everything than the Silent Generation and the Boomers, so maybe it’s just taking us a while to find our Voice. :-)

(BTW, Herman Wouk is 99 and has outlived most of the rest of his generation… and he is STILL WRITING. I love that guy.)

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