Boomer1

Boomer1 by Daniel Torday

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Mark Brumfeld is a fine example of Generation X: overeducated and underemployed. Living in New York and comfortable, he becomes less comfortable when his girlfriend rejects his marriage proposal and loses his job and is forced to move back in with his parents in Baltimore. Contrast his fortune with his girlfriend, Cassie Black, who becomes a very successful editor of viral videos at a New York magazine and falls in love with another woman.

And then there is Julia, Mark’s mother, an aging folk musician who doesn’t really know what to make of what has become of her son.

Then Mark begins to make videos in his parents’ basement, videos where he dons a David Crosby mask and begins to rail against the crimes of the generation before his, the baby boomers. He calls himself Boomer1 and his videos are a call to action. He wants the baby boomers to retire and make way for his generation. The movement quickly slips out of his control and becomes an entity all its own. Watching it happen is part of the fun of this entertaining novel.

The point of view shifts between the three main characters, a device that I usually don’t care for, but it works here.

It is somewhat similar to another book I’d read with a similar idea, Christopher Buckley’s Boomsday. But while Boomsday is broad and comedic, Boomer 1 is surgical and serious. There are real issues Torday brings up and anyone living in this present tine is painfully aware of how divided we are.

Boomer 1 is a bit of a downer, but ultimately it is a satisfying read that will cause me to seek out Torday’s other books. So there.

Boom. Boom.




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