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Rating: 
Summary: 4 1/2 Stars...Realistic, Yet Restrained
Review: Both my wife and I have gone through the anguish of our parents' divorces, so this book cried out to be read. The title, the cover, and the premise hooked us. Jen Abbas's wise words soothed us."Generation Ex" is more than a book for adult children of divorce. It's a book for life's wounded. It deals with God's redemption in the midst of heartache and loss. Chapter after chapter provide tidbits for forgiveness and moving on. Abbas's own restraint is commendable; she never lashes out or picks sides in her own family's upheaval. This is exemplary, but it also made it difficult for me to connect with the book at times. Perhaps dealing with these matters in a straightforward manner is best, yet if felt occasionally a bit clinical. Toward the end, the book seems weighted heavily for those who are considering marrriage in the light of their own parents' struggles. This makes the book particularly important for single adults. Jen, thanks for sharing your own life and pain with us, and for doing so without bitterness. Thanks for bringing a sense of hope to those who have known despair.
Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 Stars...Realistic, Yet Restrained
Review: Both my wife and I have gone through the anguish of our parents' divorces, so this book cried out to be read. The title, the cover, and the premise hooked us. Jen Abbas's wise words soothed us. "Generation Ex" is more than a book for adult children of divorce. It's a book for life's wounded. It deals with God's redemption in the midst of heartache and loss. Chapter after chapter provide tidbits for forgiveness and moving on. Abbas's own restraint is commendable; she never lashes out or picks sides in her own family's upheaval. This is exemplary, but it also made it difficult for me to connect with the book at times. Perhaps dealing with these matters in a straightforward manner is best, yet if felt occasionally a bit clinical. Toward the end, the book seems weighted heavily for those who are considering marrriage in the light of their own parents' struggles. This makes the book particularly important for single adults. Jen, thanks for sharing your own life and pain with us, and for doing so without bitterness. Thanks for bringing a sense of hope to those who have known despair.
Rating:
Summary: Heart-Wrenching And Hopeful
Review: I found that the most powerful parts of this book are about the author's life, including the poem about divorce Jen Abbas wrote at age 18, a letter from her father when she was six, and her heart-breaking memories of her parents' divorce and her mother's and stepdad's breakup. I read this book as a divorced parent--rather than as a child of divorce--and was touched by the author's emotional honesty. I didn't agree with some of the author's all-encompassing generalizations about how children of divorce have trouble forming relationships. However, I think this is an important book for divorced parents as well as children of divorce. Not only does Abbas provide children of divorce with a positive message about the need to move beyond past hurts and embrace the possibility of a happy future. She gives divorced parents great advice about how to treat their children: Don't lean on them emotionally, don't bad-mouth the "other" parent and don't insist your kids spend every vacation visiting all their "houses." Thanks to the author for her bravery and honesty!
Rating: 
Summary: heartfelt, thorough, easy to read - and impractical
Review: I have specialized in providing professional education and therapy to divorced, courting, and re/wedded couples since 1981. I am (a) 66, (b) a stepgrandson, stepson, and ex-stepfather and stepbrother, (c) an invited Board member of the Stepfamily Association of America, (d) a contributing editor to 'Your Stepfamily Online,' and (e) the author of six personal-growth and family-relations books.
I recommend this book to readers who want to increase their surface awareness of the typical personal impacts of parental divorce in a Christian context. I do not recommend the book for readers who want to reduce the wounds from the low-nurturance childhood that usually precedes legal or psychological parental divorce.
Like most authors focusing on divorce-prevention, recovery, and (re)marriage, Jen Abbas seems unaware of the effects of four vital factors:
1) the origin and impacts of six psychological wounds from childhood (vs. divorce). Most divorced parents and children appear to be significantly wounded - and don't (want to) know it;
2) the origin and impacts of blocked grief in adults and kids, and how to spot and reduce it;
3) typical adults' unawareness of, and/or indifference to, (a) normal personality formation, composition, and function; (b) keys to high-nurturance families and relationships, (c) effective communication skills, and (d) healthy 3-level grief.
In my clinical experience, these factors will combine to ptrrevent most people from following heartfelt advice such as Abbas offers her readers. For example, "learn how to trust" is a legitimate suggestion - and most children of divorce will be unable to *do* that, unless they work at harmonizing the combative, reactive parts of their personality.
For more perspective, these these articles:
http://sfhelp.org/01/innerfam1.htm
http://sfhelp.org/01/gwc-intro.htm
http://sfhelp.org/01/recovery1.htm and...
http://sfhelp.org/08/divorce.htm
Rating: 
Summary: Very Helpful Book
Review: This book is about adult children of divorce, and the issues that they face when they grow up. I found this book helpful because I'm an adult child of divorce. I could relate to a lot of what the book said. There was some helpful information about having that sense of belonging, finding a home, finding peace, letting go of resentment, relating to your parents today, and how you can create that intact family by working with your own spouse. This book was not a parent bashing book, but a book about forgiveness, realizing that your parents are human, and that although you can't change what happened in the past, you can find ways to make your life work so that you can move on from the past.
Rating:
Summary: Very Helpful Book
Review: This book is about adult children of divorce, and the issues that they face when they grow up. I found this book helpful because I'm an adult child of divorce. I could relate to a lot of what the book said. There was some helpful information about having that sense of belonging, finding a home, finding peace, letting go of resentment, relating to your parents today, and how you can create that intact family by working with your own spouse. This book was not a parent bashing book, but a book about forgiveness, realizing that your parents are human, and that although you can't change what happened in the past, you can find ways to make your life work so that you can move on from the past.
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