“Torday is a singular American writer with a big heart and a real love for the world. He has the rare gift for writing dynamic action scenes while being genuinely funny.” –George Saunders Bluegrass musician, former journalist and editor, and now PhD in English, Mark Brumfeld has arrived at his thirties with significant debt and no steady prospects. His girlfriend Cassie–a punk bassist in an … bassist in an all-female band, who fled her Midwestern childhood for a new identity–finds work at a “new media” company. When Cassie refuses his marriage proposal, Mark leaves New York and returns to the basement of his childhood home in the Baltimore suburbs.
Desperate and humiliated, Mark begins to post a series of online video monologues that critique Baby Boomers and their powerful hold on the job market. But as his videos go viral, and while Cassie starts to build her career, Mark loses control of what he began–with consequences that ensnare them in a matter of national security.
Told through the perspectives of Mark, Cassie, and Mark’s mother, Julia, a child of the ’60s whose life is more conventional than she ever imagined, Boomer1 is timely, suspenseful, and in every line alert to the siren song of endless opportunity that beckons and beguiles all of us.
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Boomer1 is a doozy–a prescient, cathartic love letter to Gen X, a fond call to arms for Millennials. Daniel Torday has written this generational cusp with wisdom, style and sincerity.
Daniel Torday’s Boomer1 is a wild, wickedly funny, and deeply empathetic look at modern American culture and politics.
In this inventive, hilarious, and audacious book, Daniel Torday elucidates the deep ironies and ambivalences embedded in how we live now.
Boomer1 channels the riotous insecurity and injustice of our contemporary America into a frightening, hilarious, and all-too-plausible societal bildungsroman. Edgy and humane, this novel is live music for our screened-off world.
Boomer1 is a dazzling new novel from one of America’s premier writers.
Torday is a singular American writer with a big heart and a real love for the world. He has the rare gift for writing dynamic action scenes while being genuinely funny.
Boomer1 from Daniel Torday is an interesting book in both concept and style. A story about the disconnect between Millennials and Baby Boomers primarily from the perspective of an angry unemployed (and under-employed) millennial.
Told from three perspectives but not in their voices, which allows asides such as letting the reader know that something the character thinks about “will never happen.” This serves to let each perspective cast a slightly wider net than if told strictly from that character’s limited knowledge.
Another purpose these perspectives offer are different views of the same events. Whether a conversation or a perception of the other person’s intention, we see that what makes sense from one perspective is not necessarily right. Not out of malice or lack of concern but simply because each of us has a limited understanding of even an event in which we are a key player.
I found it difficult to really care about the characters, except maybe the mother to some extent. I don’t know if that was intended but in some ways I think it helped me to think about what they were thinking and doing rather than pulling for or against them because I liked them or hated them.
I think the best way to approach the ideas in this novel, the points of contention between the millennials and the boomers, is not to argue against them if you disagree but to try your best to understand from the perspective of each character, and thus from each group. Save the arguing over the fine points for when you finish. Neither side’s overall argument in the novel is perfect nor completely accurate. And our counter-arguments will also be lacking. So take this book as an opportunity to try to understand rather than to point out that they seem entitled or whatever you might think. I’m a boomer and there was certainly a sense of entitlement for us. And millennials initially had a sense of entitlement before some of the disillusionment set in. And, obviously, these are broad generalizations. One local area with great job opportunity is not a counter-argument to the overall job outlook for anyone, including millennials. That is just asinine.
In addition to the big picture conflict between generations Boomer1 also makes some interesting points about technology (the internet in particular), relationships in the age of sentence fragments and shortened attention spans, and ethics in both the personal and public spheres. In other words, this novel offers a lot to think about, whether you agree or disagree with how any given character presents the topic.
Much of the book takes place in the minds of the characters, not a lot of action. This will be off-putting to some. I even saw one person who didn’t like “big words” being used so much. Yes, this is written above a 4th grade level so if “big words” bother you then you might want to avoid it. I didn’t really notice until I saw that comment so it wasn’t particularly obtrusive but if you only use 3 syllable words or smaller this might trigger you.
I gave 4 stars because I value a well-written book that makes me think both while reading and after I have finished. There were times I would have liked things to move a little quicker but, frankly, I don’t know if the impact would have been the same without the deliberate pacing and the periodic repetition, usually of essentially lists (though only 2 or 3 items long) of something about or affecting a character.
I would recommend this to a reader who enjoys deliberately (or slowly in some people’s opinions) paced stories that require the reader to empathize with the characters, even while likely disagreeing with them. You won’t want to hang out with any of them, but then, none of them would want to hang out with any of us, so…
Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.