Balsamic Dreams: A Short But Self-Important History of the Baby Boomer Generation Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Balsamic Dreams: A Short But Self-Important History of the Baby Boomer Generation Book

As witty as Michael Lewis, more sarcastic than Bobos in Paradise, bloodthirsty pop culture critic Joe Queenan talks trash about his generation and its "lifestyle über alles philosophy" in his career-capstone screed, Balsamic Dreams. And what distinguishes the baby boomers, in Queenan's acerbic opinion? "They don't ever actually want anything. They just want a huge number of choices.... They have to videotape everything. They have bottomless faith in self-help, though it's obviously not working.... They're stupefyingly self-centered, unbelievably rude, obnoxious beyond belief, and they're everywhere." Queenan bemoans "the frantic attempt by roly-poly middle-aged Republicans [also known as "the Man in the Gray Flannel Track Suit"] to evince an aura of coolness because they possess one (1) Smashing Pumpkins record and two (2) suede jackets with virtually imperceptible leopard spots." He demolishes Paul Allen's Experience Music Project with sentences like buzz bombs. James Ellroy says that Queenan is "half-Calvinist, half-nihilist," and this book proves it. Perhaps most important, Queenan reveals that "middle-aged men who wear baseball caps turned backwards do not look like Puff Daddy. They look like De Niro's doomed moron catcher in Bang the Drum Slowly." --Tim Appelo Read More

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  • Product Description

    From the bestselling author of Red Lobster, White Trash and the Blue Lagoon comes a vintage Queenan tirade chronicling the evolution of his own Baby Boomer Generation. How did a generation that started out at Woodstock andMonterey end up at Crate & Barrel? How did a generation that promised to â??teach its children wellâ? end up with a progeny so evil they could give Damien from The Omen a run for his money? And what is so fascinating about porcini mushrooms? Professional iconoclast Queenan shows how a generation with so much promise lost its way by confusing pop culture with culture and mistaking lifestyle for life.

    Queenan on The Sixties: â??Baby Boomers who never saw Hendrix, did drugs, locked or loaded an AK-47 in country or bedded down with a girl named Radiance now all pretend they did. Itâ??s like those Civil War reenactment buffs who have drunk so much Wild Turkey they actually think they were at Chickamauga.â?

    Queenan on Death: â??A generation whose primary cultural artifact is the Filofax has enormous difficulty shoehorning death into its schedule: itâ??s inconvenient, time-consuming and stressful. â??We donâ??t have time to die this afternoon; Caitlin has ballet.â??â?

  • 031242082X
  • 9780312420826
  • Joe Queenan
  • 1 June 2002
  • Picador USA
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 224
  • Reprint
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