Julie’s Reviews > The Other Serious: Essays for the New American Generation > Status Update

OMG, the Labyrinth/"You Have No Power Over Me" essay just made the book for me! Well-constructed, engaging, and fantastic!

Wish the essay on sterilization -- aka Mac vs. PC and Slackers -- was split into two essays focusing on each example. Both examples work, but the length at which they're developed lends itself to separate essays...I had to go back to the table of contents to remind myself what the essay was about, twice. ;) Good writing and observations, just needs some focus/editing.

Another intriguingly started essay falls victim to too! many! ideas! :( in the distraction essay she mentions a shelved short story that wanted to say too much, which is a decent metaphor for most of the essays in this collection. They start SO well but then veer off into another essay entirely (Ex. commentary on gender expectations in an essay on distractions).

Patina essay was great. Good length and interesting slant.

Second essay on irony was MUCH easier to digest. Interesting take on hipsters, sarcasm, and generational connections, but it lost me with 5ish pages to go. Author veered off into an unrelated/difficult to buy into connection when it would've been better to wrap up an already well reasoned, well presented, and well substantiated claim.

Woah. So. Many. Words. I had to put this down twice to get through the introduction...needlessly wordy and difficult to follow. The first essay was the same tone/style.