X Saves The World [Hardcover]

This book is a breath of fresh syntax & cultural analytic.
Gordinier's ability to truly nail certain key moments in the zeitgeist
and make them sing again is wicked good;
whether the tune is happy sad (the moment Nirvana broke)
or just plain gutter tragic (baby hit me one more time).
Gordinier lifts the curtain on obvious truths
that are only obvious once he reveals them.
I love deceptively simple artistic revelations,
and X is chock full of them.
Highly recommended unless you're a millennial, of course,
but then again, you would be too busy taking self portraits for your myspace page to read this in the first place.

This was a gift from my father, who said I'd enjoy it. I figured it had to be pretty good, since Gordinier drops the f-bomb early and often and my father does NOT tolerate foul language. If Dad was recommending this in spite of the cursing, I figured I was in for a good read.

I appreciate Gordinier's view that the term "Generation X" doesn't necessarily encompass or exclude those born during a vague time frame--even though I am pretty solidly in the accepted birth date range. "Generation X" is, by Gordinier's definition, an attitude of antipathy towards the manufactured monoculture.

I have two complaints about Gordinier's examples of GenX culture. One is his heavy (and constant) adoration of the band Nirvana. While I agree that their influence on music and culture was enormous, I don't know that they quite deserve the headline spot here. I don't think any single band would. The frequent lauding of Cobain gets a little tiresome. The second is his endorsement of Barack Obama largely because Obama presents an alternative to the Boomer (or older) candidates. If the Republican party had a young, charismatic up-and-comer who was interested in shaking up the system, would Gordinier give that person equal time? I'm not sure. Gordinier's excessively heavy focus on one particular band and one particular political candidate is the only reason I wouldn't give the book four stars. I'm not saying he shouldn't talk up his favorite band and political figure in his own book--I'd just rather he not do it in a book that is supposedly describing a fairly large segment of the population.

A reviewer complained that Gordinier attempts to turn "insipid pop music" into something "cheesily delightful." I believe that reviewer missed a crucial point of the book. I don't believe that Gordinier denies that a lot of music from his high school years was total crap. In fact, that's why he devotes so many words to the zeitgeist change brought about by (you guessed it) Nirvana. There wouldn't have been a need for change if everything had already been so wonderful.

Gordinier admits that the idea of "saving the world" is a bad cliche from a previous generation. Instead of trying to save the whole world he focuses on the small, the local, and (most importantly) the possible.

This book isn't a rallying cry. It isn't a defense. It isn't a manifesto. It's simply a reassurance that all is not lost--there are some like-minded individuals out there who are still fighting tiny, local battles against a homogenized, sterile system. A lot of those people seem to be winning, and Gordinier is encouraging other Xers to consider putting up a similar fight.

It's hard to be brief about reviewing the best recent book on Generation X. Gordinier's book is an update on the adult Xer and his forgotten place between the narcissistic Boomers and the clueless Generation Y--whom Karen McCullough labels as a group with a "much higher self-esteem than their abilities". Gordinier's book bluntly captures the essence of Generation X transitioning from its last coming-of-age moments in the 90s to its entrepreneurial spirit which brought influenced artistic alternative music and movies, the dot-com boom, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Napster, Youtube, and Google.

Gordinier's writing smacks of sarcasm and in-your-face rhetoric, which is both honest and entertaining. His vocabulary and pop allusions are for those of us who are part of his Xer world. If not, see you you later. Gordinier's writing is a brief dip into nostalgic "Cooler King Moments" such as the arrival of Nirvana. It also lambasts the Boomers at Woodstalk '94 with descriptive passages, and recently their immersion into recycled Beatles nostalgia in Las Vegas. Gordinier also clarifies what it means to recognize kitsch--borrowing on the Czech struggles for freedom in the late 80s.

The first half of the book calls to me, as if it were my finally-discovered anthem. It is an instant classic, starting with the author's 1984 job at Laguna Beach selling ice cream and testing the awareness of tourists with indie alternative music. Pure hilarity! There are other anecdotes and moments that also pique the reader's interests, such as the bookend to the Xer's youth: an escape symbolically depicted with a 1999 Volkswagen Cabrio commercial to the tune of "Pink Moon." Gordinier's scene of a simple South Park neighborhood in San Francisco at the height of the dot-com boom is eerie.

However, the second half of the book begins to lag as the author seems to search for answers to his book's thesis. He uses trite examples such as a poetry bus, subsistence gardening, and a self-conscious and frustrating view of the Bush years. His language loses its luster and instead becomes preachy. Gordinier still makes fine observations, but some of them are politcally motivated--such as alluding to Barack Obama as representing the Xer cause (and forgetting that Obama's poetic rhetoric has yet to produce any kind of ideas or practical solutions that appeal to Xers. There is nothing to suggest that he will relate to the self-sufficient spirit of the Xer). Gordinier does provide one more humourous scene in which alternative artist, Moby, encounters a futuristically fried Brittney Spears. It's worth the moment.

Overall: 5/5 stars for the first half and 3/5 stars for the second half. The books is still worthy of 4 1/2 stars for its refreshing observations, its defiant tone and wit, and its dip into nostalgia. And even if my views are not necessarily one with Gordinier's, I give him credit for attempting to provide solutions for the dismal aspects of our society. I'll take that anyday over a politician's poetic nonsense and rhetoric.

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