Rating: 
Summary: I've read better ...
Review: I think Bobos in Paradise was much better in handling the subject matter. For wittier writing, try anything by George Carlin or Dennis Miller.
Rating: 
Summary: Of Scarlet Letters and Joe
Review: The Red Sea parts with this overwrought tome from Joe Queenan. On the right you find piranha - schools of baby boomer bashers, circling and waiting to masticate their quarry. On the left are skittish prey - offended boomers who resent a cynical lens focusing so precisely on their alleged inadequacies. Where his supporters see vital truths wrapped in humor, his detractors see images of Scarlet Letters, or worse, Swastikas - the sense of being marked and maligned for simply the accident of a birth date. (For any "baby boomer" reference in the book, substitute gay, African American, Native American, woman, old man, Hispanic, Catholic or Gen Xer. If it's your group's identity under attack, maybe the shoe doesn't fit so well.) His supporters see vindication: a baby boomer willing to denounce everything baby boomer. His detractors see peeking prejudices: lurking, stereotyping, social straightjackets that booomers marched and protested fervently against when they were young, naïve and free. Through the rancorous split between these roiling waters marches Joe, self-important and self-appointed. Through this galvanizing commentary and marketing hype struts Queenan, grooming again his reputation as offensive, morally superior, and a lot smarter than most. Joe, the Pied Piper of Literary Pestilence. Acerbic social commentary may deserve a bully pulpit from time to time, especially at the crossroads of major cultural changes, especially when the nation is adrift in malcontent. But it is a rare time when we really need a Beavis & Butthead of cultural clarification to have his way with an unwitting publisher and the media hype machine. Joe's acid tone builds nothing from the waste of his artful dismissals. In the culture he's so quick to denounce, even he might agree with the final denominator of significance, the bottom-line index of his book's value...
Rating:
Summary: Self-important is right
Review: The baby boom generation does deserve a satirical review and a major comeuppance, but this isn't it. Thank goodness I didn't buy this book. I started reading it in a bookstore, thinking it looked interesting, but the author lost me toward the beginning, when he declared (self-importantly) that he is now "part of the solution." Then, he goes on to chastise lots of soft-rock musicians, as if this is the most pithy thing he could think of. As social commentary, this is just plain pathetic. Skimming the rest of the book there was not much that was better.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Really About Baby Boomers
Review: The Good: I gave out with many audible laughs while reading this book. Queenan is as erudite as he is vicious, and the results can be extremely entertaining. The Medicore: Queenan's beefs aren't really about the baby boom generation, per se; they're about liberal Democrats of all ages. It's just that some of the behaviors that can be excused in the very young appear preposterous among the middle-aged. Queenan is really identifying "Baby Boomers" as anyone who thought they were part of some kind of a "movement" during the sixties, have totally sold out to crass consumerism, but won't or can't admit it. The categorization is more political than generational. The Disappointing: This treatise would have made a great Atlantic Monthly-length essay; it's a funny and valid premise padded out to make a book. If you've read Red Lobster, etc., it's clear Queenan can carry off a quality rant for a couple of hundred pages. He doesn't manage it here.
Rating:
Summary: Joe Needs a Change of Pace
Review: In answer to "a reader from New York", most people are well aware that Queenan's writings are satirical. But that doesn't automatically make it funny. I doubt that anyone is looking for a message, or for the true meaning of life when reading satirical prose. So for the Boomers that are offended by his observations, you are missing the point. The fact is, "If You're Talking To Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble" was outragiously funny. "Red Lobster" was a bit of a step backward, and this book is just plain tedious. Like any other form of writing, you can go to the well once too often. For those who can't get enough satire, try Tony Kornheiser-"As Bald As I Want To Be" or Norm Chad-"Hold On Honey, I'll Take You to The Hospital at Halftime."
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent jab at baby boomers
Review: I have a confession to make. I was born in 1973, and ever since I was a kid all I've heard is how the baby boomers have done everything. No matter what was being discussed, it had been done before by some boomer. It seems that somehow every concievable thing was done in the 60's and 70's. We could be talking about music, politics, beer, ANYTHING. So here I am a genration X'er who detests boomers and I see this book. I read it in a day and I loved it. It does not have the stinging insults like George Carlin, rather it consists of well thought out, well-written attacks on the boomers as a whole. Queenan picks on music, SUV's, the whole greatest generation bit, how great the 60's were, boomers facination with options, and over-stimulated kids with moronic names like Dakota. I loved it, he does this well without name calling (I would have liked some name calling). He does point out some of dumb stuff about my generation, like our obsession with coffee shops (I buy my coffee at gas stations) and extreme sports. The book is a worthwile read and you'll think about it whenever you are gettting a lecture about how your music is just a rip-off of Alice Cooper, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, pick a boomer band (When a 24 year-old tells me that he thinks the Led Zeppelin is the greatest ban ever, I usually want to throw up). I you hate boomers you'll love the book (not all boomers are bad, but as a whole they stink). If you are a boomer, read the book and change your ways or else it is a nursing home for you when you get old.
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Summary: Ouch!
Review: Baslamic Dreams must have been Joe Queenen's idea of a joke. Unfortunately, the joke was on the unwitting who shelled out the bucks and then took the time to read his diatribe. While those of us who are members of the Baby Boomer generation will acknowledge a good bit of what we wrote as being valid, it begs the question: 'so what?' Who hasn't had an annoying cough that wouldn't go away and convinced ourselves that it was an inoperable form of cancer and that we were about to meet the Almighty prematurely? Should that give the author license to take cheap shots at Dennis Miller, Rolling Stone big tongue T-shirts, Paul Allen, Fisherman's Wharf, Robin Williams, The Gap, children named Jenna, Jared, Josh, Jason or Jordon, ABBA, Chris Berman, Les Miz, Hughey Lewis & the News, Bill Clinton, Geraldo Rivera, Beatlemania, Causal Friday, Art Garfundel's hair or Tim Borkaw's Greatest Generation? I don't think so. Queenan pokes fun of a generation who can't grow good looking beards, yet even the most cursory examination of the book's jacket clearly indicts him for a mea culpa. And while we're at it, what about HIS hair? He ain't got nuthin' on Art Garfunkel! While the book holds kernals of truth in that the Boomer generation contains "active ingredients (of) self-absortion, political correctness, premature nostalgia, 60's romanticizing and unabashed consumerism..." claims of a similar nature can be lodged against other generations (to wit the Lost Generation of the 20's). It seems to me that Mr. Queenan, in his analysis of our generation, took a few (probably very few) moments to calculate the cost of and method for making a mortgage payment on a place in the Hamptons, a shiney new high-powered coupe (made, no doubt, in the Black Forest), as well as dining in the Big Apple, or, perhaps, Darien. At perhaps something like $... per book, by screwing 150,000 or so of us by enticing us to buy the book, he could net himself a cool $.... That should keep the foie gras and kips flowing and it will certainly allow his friends (if he has any) and him to avoid the terrible indignity of sipping a Mondavi with their meal. If the author had any dignity, not to mention a shred of honor, he would take an ad in the NY Times and offer to repurchase every single copy of the book. Even if he'd only give me one half of the purchase price, I'd think more kindly of him. Save yourself the money, dear reader, and take the wife and kids to Taco Bell!
Rating:
Summary: Mildly funny and very clever
Review: There is no denying that Balsamic Dreams, by Joe Queenan, is funny, clever, and entertaining to read. But a consequence of being a prolific writer is that readers might read your other books and compare or even prefer them to you latest offering. Such is my assessment of Queenan's most recent book, "Balsamic Dreams," which is subtitled "A Short But Self-Important History of the Baby Boomer Generation. The book is a loose collection of essays that excoriate, dissect, and firmly pin to the dart board the stereotypical "Baby Boomer" (a term which, with his usual irony, Queenan capitalizes). For Queenan's purposes, the official definition of a Baby Boomer is slightly outside the officially recognized statistical boundaries and includes those born between 1943 and 1960 or 1962. In his "Disclaimer Chapter," Queenan humbly acknowledges his own membership in this group. In short, Queenan defines the generation, which he calls "a mindset as much as a demographic group," thusly: To qualify as a Baby Boomer, a person must have been deeply affected at a relatively early age by a significant number of the following: the Soviet Union's development of the hydrogen bomb, Elvis, Sputnik, the Thunderbird, the Twist, the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy Debate, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Muhammad Ali's defeat of Sonny Liston, JFK's assassination, the Beatles, the civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King's assassination, assorted other assassinations, the Tet Offensive, the Days of Rage, the Strawberry Statement, LBJ's self-furlough, Muhammad Ali's defeat at the hands of Joe Frazier, Jimi Hendrix's death, Jim Morrison's death, Janis Joplin's death, Duane Allman's death, Woodstock, Easy Rider, The Graduate, Joe, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Altamont, Charles Manson, the breakup of the Beatles, the secret invasion of Cambodia, Watergate, Richard Nixon's resignation. Having set the parameters of his targeted foes, Queenan skewers them with his laser-like, sardonic wit. Notable "high misdemeanors" of the offending generation are: the habit of middle-aged men to wear ponytails and sandals in an effort to look "cool" to the next generation; their propensity for bogus and un-enriching self-improvement courses given by charlatans such as Deepak Chopra; listening to weak, uninspiring music by Billy Joel and Rod Stewart; naming their children with odd, androgynous names and substituting irritating and ineffective "parenting" techniques for raising their children with solid, traditional, middle-class values; and, most egregious of all, selling out the revolutionary values they held as young adults in exchange for "the good life." As previously mentioned, this book was good, and it was funny, but it was not as enjoyable or as outright hilarious as a previous Queenan work, entitled "Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon," which details Queenan's effort to experience and survive all manner of pop culture phenomena, such as Kenny G. concerts, reading Shogun, and seeing the play Cats. "Red Lobster" was so funny, I could hardly breathe or see the page for my hysterical laughter, and in a first experience for me, I howled with glee even at the index. "Balsamic Dreams" has its funny parts and its clever parts, but it also has some or repetitive boring stretches. It also employs some methods of narration or parody that simply don't work or wear out quickly, as in Queenan's fantasy alternative history of America as seen through the eyes of politically and environmentally correct and pacifistic Baby Boomers. By all means read "Balsamic Dreams," but reward yourself by following up with "Red Lobster."
Rating:
Summary: tart & not so mellow!
Review: Joe sets out to disabuse ourselves of the notion that we Baby Boomers actually did anything earth-shaking back then. With a dig in our ribs & a coy turn of phrase, he reminds us of what from that era, holds particular reverence & reference in today's middle age. Of course his perspective is mawkishly masculine, how else would it be for an unreconstructed chauvinist? You should read his tirade about our children! In his chapter Good Lovin' Gone Bad he concocts a recipe for what America might have become had Baby Boomers "stuck to their idealistic guns" - would "peace, love & understanding" have swept away the gun lobby? A mind boggling concept. American History: the B-side is knee-slapping, teeth-rattling funny! All-in-all, jivin' Joe has painted a pretty patchouli picture of us BBs. His vitamin-enriched jeremiad owes everything to the vitality & naivete of those long-ago idealists & nothing to his 20/20 hindsight. I get the feeling Joe Queenan thinks the BBs haven't figured something out yet & have co-opted into a monetary-enhanced facsimile of our parents' lifestyles. Oh, Balsamic Dreams is amusing, as Joe Queenan mocks himself as well as his generation, it does, however, get old, as he obviously is. About as palatable as a salad soaked in balsamic vinegar - some like it sour, some do not. Balsamic Dreams is an interesting look back on an age with all its oxymorons & hippy-dippy-ness.
Rating:
Summary: Balsamic Dreams Ain't Nothin But The Truth!
Review: Joe Queenan new work, Balsamic Dreams will be remembered for many years to come because it is the first book writen by a white babyboomer to expose with some authenticity who these white babyboomers were, and what they've become. It is my hope Mr.Queenans work will inspire other babyboomers to further testify to the doings of this generation in which I'm a part. The book is honest, purely from a white perspective,with not too much regard to others views, which is courageous to me, because white babyboomers trademark is to a code of secrecy, power, and denial, of their true feelings about black Americans civil rights, and workplace opportunities. Balsamic Dreams in its own way helps to explain the downfall of the civil rights movement, affirmative action,and the never ceased Resegregation of America. Mr. Queenan you wrote the truth. I hope white boomers don't decide to ignore you as though you don't exist, as though you have nothing to offer of value. If they do.... that could be a topic in Balsamic Dreams 2.
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