Michele G.
This was an excellent book. I grew up with baby boomer parents but my grandparents, who lived through the Great Depression, always lived with us and my grandmother was really my primary caretaker. As I grew up I noticed a very stark contrast between my grandmother's and my parents in every way from their ethics, their ability to bond with us as children, their morals and values and I always wondered how and why it was that these vast differences existed. My grandmother was a strong, hard working, loving and giving person. My parents seemed detached from us, cold, selfish, shallow, dishonest, manipulative and untrustworthy. Rather than helping us as we grew into adult hood they were control freaks and seemed motivated more by their own interests than helping their children. My grandmother didn't spoil us or coddle us. She taught us hard work by living it as an example. My parents preached a lot about orals and hard work but never practiced it. I wrestled with why they were so different and although I love my parents, I just couldn't get close to them or understand their behavior. They just didn't seem like good people. As they got older they grew even more narcissistic and prideful and seem to think that they possess some moral high ground and are the only generation that can say they are "patriots". As years passed I came to meet other baby boomers and found that many though not all exhibited these same behaviors. I felt like I was developing a prejudice that was perhaps unwarranted. This book really does a lot to explain so much and it not only explains the roots of this generation's behavioral tendencies but also explains how my generation and those after me can begin to heal the damage they caused. It is especially frustrating with so many baby boomers in government because I feel like they are still making policy and laws to benefit this generations with the rest of us be damned. I'm 48 and I can't wait for the younger generation to move into politics. Thank you so much for this excellent book.