Now For The Disappointing Part was, well, unfortunately a bit disappointing. I was off to a strong start, as the author describes in the preface that he feels in the cusp of being born a Millennial and in Generation X (had he been born five months earlier). I am more than five months older than him and have never been considered a Millennial, but I finished college as a non-traditional student and have been on a Millennial education and career path. I was excited to relate to some of his struggles as someone who identifies with a generation of current parents as well as their adult children. By the end of the book I felt like the full-fledged "Get off my lawn" Gen-X codger I was born to be. Steven Barker's essays are humorous and I can understand why others enjoy them more than I did, but injecting humor as he's done in these tales of temporary employment makes him come across as if he hasn't struggled much through his adult life of unemployment and temp work. It's"s hard to relate to someone who seems privileged enough not to sweat losing unemployment benefits due to their own mismanagement. My student loan debt haunts me even when I'm gainfully employed. It seemed as though he had the luxury of just screwing around with random temp jobs just to give him something to write about. To be fair, he ended up doing just that.
Also, I call b.s. on anyone who eats that much mac & cheese and says they couldn't tell the difference between store brand and Kraft in a blind taste test. What store brand was he buying? I could probably tell the difference in a blind smell test before even tasting. In college, the splurge for the blue box was an unforgettable experience: pure luxury and indulgence.
What I did like, along with his sense of humor, was some of the insights he provides as a Canadian with a green card working in th U.S. He recognizes how he's treated on the job at a call center, compared to his American coworker with an Indian accent. He's assumed to be American, she is assumed to be an immigrant. In reality, he's never even applied for U.S. citizenship and she was born in the U.S.
Overall the book was worth a read, but it was a strange mix of being humorous but not really lighthearted, and with rare moments of depth. I would have liked to see a little more depth throughout. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy for review