At the outset I must declare that I am an over 50 year old male who has never had the slightest desire to own a Corvette, red or otherwise and who has been fortunate, thus far not to do any of the things normally considered to be aspects of a mid life crisis.
Being British, however, one is just supposed to bite the upper lip and proceed through life like one of the majestic ships in Her Majesty's Royal Navy regardless of what is thrown at you. In plain English, we are not taught about such things, we are ignorant and some things are better that way.
Having said that I have been going through some changes in my life and the fact that I grew my hair long again, for the first time in a decade and a half brought forth a slew of comments about me going through a mid-life crisis with the result Jim Conway's book came first and one of the things that became very clear was that some of the things that I was experiencing certainly fitted the template of mid-life crisis but also could be explained by depression or even simply burn out. As I proceeded to work through the book I was struck by the honesty of the author and his faith in his religion. The use of real life examples certainly illuminated the things he was saying and I could see the sense of his view. It was also clear to me that he has a tendency to be repetitive and reiterated the same things in slightly different contexts when a shorter book would have been preferred.
Also it became increasingly clear that from a personal perspective I was NOT undergoing a mid-lifer but was more frustrated at a lack of progress and development in the large corporate organisation that I currently work for. Similarly as a relatively highly educated individual my skills and talents are being unrecognised and wasted in the face of the requirement for unquestioned obedience.
I continued with the book until the end but it was superfluous by that stage.
In summary I would say that there is a need for books of this ilk. I would think that many people around forty will face questions that they had not encountered before or in a long time. Those people need answers which they will not get from their best friends or families and these books can help. I learned however, that there is a greater need to understand what is euphemistically called 'adult development' and that there are things that we should all do to help ourselves - the same old hoary chestnuts, eat right, exercise and maintain a good social network being the main ones.
This book ertainly helped me. It helped me to reassure myself that I was not having a belated mid-life crisis. It helped me to seek out other sorts of information. It helped me be grateful that I am the person I am and able to contribute in the small ways that I do and it helped me to see that while having some sort of religious belief is not essential to get through life, some sort of principles are