Customer Reviews

My Generation: Fifty Years of Sex, Drugs, Rock, Revolution, Glamour, Greed, Valor, Faith, and Silicon Chips

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The author chose the playing field on which to analyse the Sixties---through the lives of 19 influential and somewhat well-known "Boomers," as opposed to the average Joe or Judy. Fine. So you can't really complain that Donald Trump doesn't belong here--sure he does, he was born in 1946--but in the end his chronicles tell you less about the Sixties and more about himself, more than he'd probably care to admit. Several of the other life stories are much more interesting than Trump's, but in the end they also don't tell me much more than I'd already ascertained; that when people grow, they change. Some here haven't change much except idealogies; conservative Barbara Ledeen apparently still sees heinous conspiracies in everything, only they're left-wing conspiracies now instead of the right-wing ones of her former Marxist incarnation. Others, such as Doug Martlette, Marianne Williamson and David McIntosh, did major overhauls in their outlook and POV. But none of these chronicles really tells me anything about what made the Sixties more influencial than, say, the Fifties or the Eighties. This makes Michael Gross' book a qualified sucess as a cultural history of America, but a very engrossing collection of people's lives---the good, bad, ugly and lovely.

I had read Michael Gross' book Model and I was so impressed by it that I bought his other books and this was the next one I read and I was totally blown away by it for all the same reasons. Gross is a master of a flowing prose which just effortlessly moves the reader along with a sweeping reach which is perfect for a book like this. Minor details just hit home on every page. I worked at Studio 54 and I think I learned more about the club from this book than I did by working there! For instance I had always believed that Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager had been college friends but reading My Generation I learned that in fact Ian had early on been Steve's lawyer and suddenly the relationship made sense. I am moving in on the 740 Park book now with full anticipation. My Generation is a fantastic book.