Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers: On New Jobs, Old Loves, Fighting the Man, Having a Kid, Saving the World, and Everything in Between

Selected as the winners of Random House's national contest, a stunning collection of essays ranging from comic to poignant, personal to political, by the brightest young writers you haven't heard of .... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812975669
• ISBN13: 9780812975666
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A glimpse into a diverse world

Reading Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething writers is like sampling divinity and liverwurst. Each story represents a diverse lifestyle and way of thinking. Some seem trite or odd, while others plunge you into the heart of what it means to be 24 and serving in Kuwait, or experiencing the death of a loved one and being a widow when it's far from familiar or fashionable. It's interesting, like glimpsing into the window of what it means to be a twentysomething, and yet the truth is that we're all different, no matter our age. We all experience life on our own terms. We all think that life's challenges are large, until we see that someone else has experienced far greater obstacles than we have. As I sampled these essays, I looked for those essays that were deep and insightful and I look forward to watching those writers find their niche in the literary world.

gift for my daughter

Actually I didn't read the book, but I'd like to! It was a Christmas gift for my daughter, who is almost 20... she loves to read, and I thought this might be something that would interest her... she loved it...

20Somethings Write

The writers in this great collection are keeping very busy: raising kids; nursing a boyfriend through terminal illness; maturing in Kuwait; working at Wendy's; learning to "dance" with their OCD; logging on to Friendster, Facebook, MySpace and Nerve accounts -- they've got a lot going on, and it was fun to check out of my life for a bit and listen in on theirs. My favorite essay has to be Elrena Evans' "My Little Comma," which I edited for its first home at LiteraryMama.com. It might fit even better here with its twentysomething companions. Evans and her daughter nurse, watch Star Trek, read The Baby Goes Beep, navigate graduate school meetings, and nurse a whole lot more. I've read this essay, in various versions, over a dozen times in the past year and it never gets old. Other essays I particularly loved... Jess Lacher's "California" reminded me of how strange and unfamiliar it all seemed when I first arrived here myself: the "gentle and mysterious suggestions" of the seasons; the intense and exotic plants; the sense of being on a "vacation life". Emma Black writes about teaching elementary school and learning how to "Think Outside the Box But Stay Inside the Grid." For the sake of her students, I hope she keeps trying. Radhiyah Ayobami spends "An Evening in April" getting a treat for her son before the curfew at their shelter; they give some change to a woman on the corner, and Ayobami imagines someday going to the park with this stranger and her kids: "People would look at us, and instead of seeing two beggars, they'd see two mothers with children, and they'd smile. I had big plans for that woman, if only I could see her again." In Shahnaz Habib's gorgeous "Backlash," written the day of the bomb blasts in Delhi, she worries about an old friend and thinks sadly of the secret relationship they have now lost. When I started reading this collection, I was thinking I don't know too many people who are in their twenties, but now I kind of feel like I do. That's some fine writing.

A September Wish

I want to have Bronson Lemer's baby. His mustache essay is divine. But you should buy this book for more reasons than that, unless you, like me, would like to have Bronson Lemer's mustachioed baby.