Repetitive, uninteresting, grouchy essays about how Roiphe has, through some kind of charming aloofness, risen above the masses. These masses of course are over-reliant on technology and extremely nervous parents, the theme she beats like a dead horse in this collection.

The shape of this collection, too, is a mess, there is no sense as to why these particular essays go together (a few of them are personal, some of them are literary -- the best ones, most of them are moralizing about The State of Affairs These Days, and the rest are inexplicable), many of the essays are quite outdated, and mostly the theme of "exploring messy lives" isn't enough to hang it all together. So why does this book even exist?