Amazon ‘asked’ me if Katie’s book “met my expectations”; and also “invited” me to review it. I wasn’t going to because I like Katie Roiphe and mostly like her perspective, and the topics – Old men writers; Female writers; Uptown, downtown, & backstreet columnists; Young, whiney/wimpy/angry, male writers; Sex (the act of); Parenting; Social media; and The Internet – she chooses to write about. I also find her funny —her wit, such as she displays in the essay “The Angry Commenter,” where she suspects that what the “troll” is most angry about is that the writer can write, has an outlet, is read, makes some money, and maybe mostly, that the writer can think. I also like her voice in the last three essays when she uses the first person “I.” Which brings me to what I don’t like. I don’t like when she uses the plural voice “we,” and the pompous one “one,” as in “One wonders … .” Who’s we? Fans of Katie Roiphe? Okay, I’m all in. She is a sexy, cock-eyed, smart, provocative writer.

But doesn’t she really mean I (as in her) wonder? And she is way too caught up in her own world of academia i/r/t her word choices. AND finally, she doesn’t sign off the essays with the date when she wrote them, so there is no context. Things change very, very, rapidly today. It would be helpful to know when, exactly, she thought what she thought. Just in case she changes her mind.

One more thing: Roiphe seems to have a yearning for her mother’s time – the literature as well as the behaviors. She seems to think that life was more carefree then, and that people today are far too uptight. I have step-daughters her age and a millennium son, and I, myself, am a Boomer with a messy life; and so I feel qualified to comment – It wasn’t all that great and there was a price to pay for all that ‘fun.’ As evidence I suggest she read Jane Leavy’s The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood. It’s a sad story – what all that fun can do to a man. In addition, there is the social and psychological ‘trickle down’ of unintended consequences, which may go a long way towards explaining many of her complaints. But all in all, I liked this book a lot. I like Ms. Katie Roiphe and the way she thinks about things, and will definitely read whatever she writes in the future. She has something to say that is original, thought provoking, often funny, and I find myself often in agreement with her point of view, which is uncommon.