Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties [Paperback]

The book was written with the intent to describe a phenomenon rather than write a prescription; authors Robbins and Wilner are clear about that from the outset. Somebody just forgot to tell that to the marketing department over at Tarcher / Putnam (the publisher).

Under the dangerously false impression that "Quarterlife Crisis" is actually going to tell them what to do with their topsy-turvy lives, readers are greedily snatching up this title... And then dejectedly putting it down after realizing that it offers little more than anecdotal confirmation of the problems they are so desperate to solve. As a result, you've got a readership that's had way too much commiseration, and not nearly enough shutting up and getting to work on their problems.

That's why I recommend Michael Ball's "@ the Entry Level: On Survival, Success, & Your Calling as a Young Professional." This is a book that actually holds the reader's hand, and guides them to wherever their heart points. Plus it shows them how to beat the Fortune 500 along the way. THIS is the book twentysomethings thought they were getting with "Quarterlife Crisis."

My one very big gripe with this book is that it seems to focus only on those that went to college straight from high school and graduated in four years. Not everyone in their twenties fits that description. Furthermore, the book doesn't really offer any solutions (I don't necessarily think that's the authors fault though). This is NOT a "self-help" book. Instead, purchase it if you think you're the only one going through a period of self-doubt and general frustration because you no longer have a road map to tell you what's next.

I said, "are you serious? In this day and age, you have to have a degree to work in a library, undergrads don't mean much in this world. Some of us don't have the money to go back and get graduate degrees. PLus, all of our friends and family generally live in many different states and we dont' have enough money to call/visit all the time, and it is very difficult to find other mid twenties people to be friends with to form a support ring, and it is LONELY!"

She just looked at me in disbelief and said, "this is the prime of your life, don't worry, just enjoy it."

Enjoy it? Ya, I am going to enjoy living pay check to pay check while I work at some lame job that SORT OF has to do with my schooling, while I am paying off my school debt...my rent, my car, and wondering how I can achieve my dreams without money. And I'll really enjoy having no friends because they are all scattered across the country,and I have no time to meet people because I work 2 jobs, and my family doesn't "get" why I am so miserable.

I have always refered to this time in my life as my "mid twenties" crisis. Everyone I know that is my age is in the same thing unless they majored in Business or Computer related things and got a dream job right out of college. The rest of us are floating around aimlessly trying to find a niche. An undergrad degree is worthless most of the time, and so we end up in dead end jobs we aren't happy in. We question our dreams, we wonder if we are settling or giving up, or if we should still carry out our dreams, or just let them be "dreams". It is hard to decifer whether or not reality is "giving up" or reality is just plain reality. Then again, you hear about people like Mozart, and Brittney Spears, and Jessie Jackson and other people in this world that acheive their "impossible" dreams... you wonder if it is blind luck on their part, or they just did something we haven't figured out yet.

This book is great to identify with if you are in a similar position, and it is good to know there are SO many others in the same situation. They give a website too for a support group...which is useful.

The authors are not therapists, they don't do a lot of "here is what to do about it", but they do tell a lot of stories about others in our situation, and point the problem out to society so these OLDER people DON'T look like I am crazy when we talk about it!!!