The Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-up
by Dan Zevin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dan ZevinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-06-11
ISBN: 0812967224
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Villard
Book Reviews of The Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-up
Book Review: Confession: I Am Too Old For This Book and I Liked It Anyway
Summary: 4 Stars
As someone who is well into middle age and still grappling with the idea of growing up and being an adult, I loved reading Dan Zevin's startling confessions ("I went to a wine tasing", "I am a figure of authority", etc.). I still feel like an imposter when I do something grown up like spackling or buying insurance.
Some of Zevin's confessions have been done to death ("I take pride in my lawn", "I engage in home improvement projects"), but he's easy to take and makes even these stale subjects fun to read about.
Where he really gets funny though, is when he is ticked off. One of the funniest essays is about his participation, as a freelance journalist, in an etiquette class for eight- to twelve-year-olds. The teacher is prim and snooty and Zevin is outraged at the idea of a class where the kids are taught to suck up to the teacher and to be as uptight as she is. So he befriends the class slacker.
Another chapter that stands out is when Zevin and his wife visit Zevin's younger (by fifteen years) brother in Spain. His brother is spending a semester abroad, just like Zevin did so many years ago. He compares the diaries he kept as a twenty-year-old single dude in Denmark with his "adventures" as a thirty-five-year-old married guy who thinks he might be catching a cold.
Anyone who is funny is compared to Dave Barry, and Zevin is reminiscent of Barry sometimes, but I hope that he doesn't go stale like Barry and start to pull out the booger jokes whenever he's hard up for a laugh. No matter how much you are reluctant to grow up, there are some things that just aren't as funny coming out of a fifty-year-old.
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