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Other moments in his career include co-authoring the infamous "Not Your Fathers Oldsmobile" campaign for General Motors and penning a 60-second commercial for Heinz catsup wherein a teen-aged Matt LaBlanc plants and catches the slow pouring hero product from atop a New York brownstone.
He is a desired speaker and has traveled all over the world giving diverse and often provocative talks related to his profession. Understandably, a favorite topic is the "Untold Story Behind the Scenes of Altoids."
A creative writing and film major at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he wrote for both the right and left-wing campus newspapers and was Features Editor for the "Mad City Music Mirror."
A writer of numerous short stories, he has won honorable mentions and later First Place in the national competition of "New Voices in American Fiction."
"The Last Generation" is the first of three novels he has written to be published.
Ironically, given the story, he has three children.
Steffan, his wife Susan, and the girls live in downtown Chicago, the city where he was born.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It Doesn't Get Much More Depressing Than This,
By
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This review is from: The Last Generation (Paperback)
Post-apocalyptic novels are almost their own genre. Almost all follow certain conventions already well established in the well known entries in the field like The Stand, The Postman, Lucifer's Hammer, and so on. The Last Generation honours some of those basic conventions (for instance, a very large cast of characters who initially seem completely disconnected from each other, but who turn out to be bound together in some way) but departs from the pattern in some very innovative and interesting ways.The most significant is that the disaster in question is a condition which suddenly arose that prevented any pregnancy from being carried to term. So, rather than a story about civilization being almost instantaneously wiped out, we have the story of a group of folks from the last generation that was born trying to find some meaning in life as the human race slowly grinds down to an inevitable end and culture unravels with no future upon which to pin its hopes. The novel is gen-X literature through and through. The chapters are mostly short, and consist of the sort of short declarative sentences and sentence fragments that typified Hemingway's writing. Whether intentionally or not, the bleak gen-X view of the world is blatant, and the way in which the characters deal with the problem is mostly an expose of the banality of post-modern life. References to current pop-culture, filtered through the viewpoint of the last generation are replete. This works surprisingly well, but I think it will impair the ability of the novel to speak to future readers. As someone else has pointed out, this book doesn't have the usual happy ending. With few exceptions (I am Legend, Soylent Green), postapocalyptic fiction generally has a happy ending. Postaer follows his premise through to its dismal end. A minor gripe is that the editor failed to catch a number of minor factual errors in various descriptions and comparisons. In the end, this tale is full of sound and fury, but signifies nothing. Then again, I somehow think that was the point. I can't imagine re-reading it, but it was worth the time and money first time around (I got it last night and finished it this morning).
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A simple concept that provokes complex thoughts,
By Brett Sneed (Elgin, IL) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Last Generation (Paperback)
I was very impressed with Mr. Postaer's first book. He took a very simple 'what if' concept and explored the idea in a number of different intelligent ways that all rang true. His main focus on the individual characters really kept me invovled in the story and the little snippets that looked at society in the bigger picture were all very clever and evocative.
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellant,
By chicago fan "big fan" (chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Last Generation (Paperback)
The writer is inventive, articulate and lots of fun.
I highly recommend the book.
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