Customer Reviews

The Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-up

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Hey, I'm 36. Six years ago I was crashing in laundry rooms in houses with, as Dan Zevin puts it, "more roommates than rooms." I strode through the streets of Seattle after dark without fear, carrying kicky little handbags made of cola cans, and met most of my ever-changing circle of boyfriends through personal ads in an alternative paper. Now I'm hooked up with one person, own part of a condo, and the hippest thing about me is my actual hips, which have broadened to accommodate my two kids. So OF COURSE I'm gonna' find Zevin's book-The Day I Turned Uncool-better than anything I've read this summer. It's like reading my own diary. And of course I'm gonna' find this book funny. Hilariously funny. Milk-through-your-nose hilariously funny.

I identified most strongly with three basic themes in Zevin's essays First, there is a sense of ashamed of privilege or ownership ("I Take Pride in My Lawn," "I Joined a Health Club," "I Hired a Cleaning Lady"). Second, there are signs of aging ("I Am a Figure of Authority", "My Social Circle Has Shriveled and Shrunk", "Getting Dressed is Getting Harder"). And third, there are essays reflecting a general fear of drifting into even deeper realms of the uncool ("Going Out Has Been Replaced by Going Out to Dinner", "The World is No Longer My Oyster," "Paternal Instincts are Plaguing Me"). I identified so strongly I read passages of this book to anyone who would listen. My partner, my brother, the other Mommies in my toddler's playgroup-we all compared notes and found this book to be truer than true. Ruefully true. And funny. Did I mention funny already?

But when I read some passages to my parents, who still find Willie Nelson cool, they shrugged. Sure, it was amusing, but they thought Zevin had a long ways to go. So yeah-I would have given this book 5 stars. I'm a Gen Xer who was once glad to have enough money for a bottomless cup of coffee and am now glad to have an IRA. But it looks like the appeal is limited to me & my kind.

As someone who is well into middle age and still grappling with the idea of growing up and being an adult, I loved reading Dan Zevin's startling confessions ("I went to a wine tasing", "I am a figure of authority", etc.). I still feel like an imposter when I do something grown up like spackling or buying insurance.

Some of Zevin's confessions have been done to death ("I take pride in my lawn", "I engage in home improvement projects"), but he's easy to take and makes even these stale subjects fun to read about.

Where he really gets funny though, is when he is ticked off. One of the funniest essays is about his participation, as a freelance journalist, in an etiquette class for eight- to twelve-year-olds. The teacher is prim and snooty and Zevin is outraged at the idea of a class where the kids are taught to suck up to the teacher and to be as uptight as she is. So he befriends the class slacker.

Another chapter that stands out is when Zevin and his wife visit Zevin's younger (by fifteen years) brother in Spain. His brother is spending a semester abroad, just like Zevin did so many years ago. He compares the diaries he kept as a twenty-year-old single dude in Denmark with his "adventures" as a thirty-five-year-old married guy who thinks he might be catching a cold.

Anyone who is funny is compared to Dave Barry, and Zevin is reminiscent of Barry sometimes, but I hope that he doesn't go stale like Barry and start to pull out the booger jokes whenever he's hard up for a laugh. No matter how much you are reluctant to grow up, there are some things that just aren't as funny coming out of a fifty-year-old.

I'm a bit younger than Zevin and he's already describing my life, so I got a glimpse at what is coming up. This book is a quick read--a series of short entries on topics from lawn care to home improvement to the breaking of those decades-old appliances from your college days to teaching students at a local college. Zevin is a master humorist who delivers his message quickly and with a punch.

The absolute highlight of the collection is Zevin's essay which alternates passages from his journal during his junior year abroad with his experiences fifteen years later visiting his younger brother in Spain. Junior year was THE MOST INTENSE experience, closing down bars, being "stoked," sleeping in train stations, and finding truth and beauty in music and literature. That travel journal is juxtaposed brilliantly against Zevin's demand for creature comfort and different pace at age 35. "Confession: The world is no longer my oyster."

Zevin could be called a male Sandra Tsing Loh, but he gets to his point a lot faster and isn't whiny. This is a fun book, a quick, digestible read, and a great gift item for anyone in their late twenties or mid-thirties.

I should know something about being uncool: I just bought a mini-van. So you can imagine that I related to Dan Zevin's confessions of uncoolness in this very funny book. Zevin's humor is so fresh and clever that you have to forgive him for hanging onto his frat boy mentality into his thirties and instead laugh out loud. I highly recommend this book for people who, like Zevin (and me), feel as though they suddenly woke up realizing they're too old for doing Jello shots until 3 a.m., but just old enough to serve Jello parfaits to their dinner party guests.

I don't often buy humor books, but this one looked too funny to pass up. It turns out that the book is funny, but also insightful and a really good and quick read. The essays can stand alone, though they all fit together very nicely. I especially like the essay comparing Zevin's study abroad semester in Denmark with his week abroad visiting his younger brother in Spain. Definitely one of my new favorites!

At the age of 37, I'm still shocked when a friend of mine announces a pregnancy or until recently, an engagement. I find myself thinking, "We aren't old enough to be married, parents, etc" This past summer, I got engaged, and the sight of the ring on my left hand still shocks me sometimes. Pleasantly, though. So it is no wonder that I could relate so well to Dan Zevin's insight on the process of growing up. You know next on my list will be his book about getting married...But before then, I have to take a minute and highly recommend this read to all those out there who never thought adulthood would happen to them, or at least not the "grown up" aspects of it. Though, Dan's insight into the process of recognizing you have indeed become an adult, and an Uncool one at that, is written with that rare comic eye that can see the irony and the humor in the smallest detail. You know, the very talent that made Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) the comic legend he is. And it is that talent that will have you laughing out loud, (though hopefully you won't be traveling alone on an airplane as I was. i thought i was going to get "removed" to the back of the plane), in recognition or sometimes in sympathy as is the case with his father who calls Bruce Springsteen "The Bruce". Not only do I recommend that you read the book, buy a couple of copies and pass along to your friends.

Dan Zevin has written a very funny collection of 24 essays about aging. If you've ever looked in the mirror and seen your mother (or father) looking back at you and then realized that was YOUR face, then this book is for you. The general feeling Zevin shares about aging is surprise. Inside he doesn't feel any different than he did in college, but on the outside things are changing. Well, except the clothes from college that he's still wearing.

Time alone has pushed him into a world of yard work and real jobs, no more all-nighters and the realization that some things really are easier if you're not high. I still feel 21 inside, too, even though I'm well past my expiration date. This is a fun book that reads a little like Dave Barry and takes some of the sting out of aging.

Zevin is absolutely hilarious..
Even though I couldn't relate to much of What he wrote about (like the gardening and the dogs), it was still funny beyond proportion..
Very smart, very funny writer.

Being in my early twenties and recently living on my own, I find myself becoming an actual grown-up (which is kinda bumming me out) and feeling that i'm becoming uncool. I found myself laughing out loud and nodding my head in agreement with a lot of what Mr. Zevin says. Reading this book made me feel better knowing that there are other people who feel like I do. I would recommend this book to anybody, but especially those in their 20's and 30's; I think everybody can relate to and laugh at something in this book! It's also a very quick read and can easily be read in one day. I suggest you pick up a copy and have a good laugh. :)

As a twenty-something, I read this book and found hilarious some of the things he refers to that were totally cool to do (dumpster dive for furniture) that wouldn't pass at a later age. Or also not being able to stay out late and party, or things that sounded totally boring are actually enjoyable at a later age. Very funny!