I am personally so drawn to "millennial fiction" because I love that focused character study of an in-your-head, somewhat unlikeable/realistic narrator, sexually and emotionally complicated, simple dialogue, lots of mundanity. I have loved Ottesa Moshfegh, Sally Rooney, and Kristen Roupenian. However, this type of novel obviously exists outside of millennial writers so I do wish there was another umbrella term for the genre... one of my other favorite writers who does this is Sheila Heti, and she is more in the Gen Z camp like Moshfegh. There's also Ben Lerner and Rachel Cusk with similar themes but not labeled this way. This week I have been reading "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin and realized she was doing all of this 100 years ago! I just wish I knew better how to find books in this niche.
Yes! Such great points - maybe if we all stopped leaning so heavily on umbrella terms we would could develop a more useful way of talking about the specifics of each book :)
As a non millennial person I can say that the so called millennial books feel exciting in their initial phase then give place to some sort of self admiration with language acrobatics which tend to convey nothing but naive narcissism and unrealistic outcomes that only an inexperienced person could think of as realistic. BUT: you made me believe that Luster offers more than that, and your sharp perceptions convinced me that these three books have more consistency than the current avatars of millennial literature. Thaks for the video. Very enlightening.✌🏼
"Language acrobatics" To me this is almost like the jittery camera movements put to entire lengths of tv shows/ movies to synthetically heighten the intensity and excitement of an underwhelming storyline. 🙄
Loved your insights! I just read Luster and found it really good, but I couldn't bring myself to like Conversations with Friends. I found Rooney's story was just about young people who had the privilege to not mature but needed to be self-aware enough to make up for the refuse to actually grow. And, though Eddie in Luster didn't really "mature" too, her resentment and sharpness of thoughts made more sense. I suppose that whilst in Conversations with Friends the "honesty factor" felt more like a mechanism to pull in the reader - by causing shock or something like that - and didn't do anything to the characters journey, Leilani's way of writing felt like the sharpness was part of Eddie's identity, thus not really materring her growth or lack thereof.
I think you nailed it when you talked about the fact that we need to stop putting all books by millennial authors in the same bucket. I strongly disliked Normal People but absolutely loved Convenience Store Woman. Severance left me ambivalent. Part of me is attracted to books like Luster because I am part of the narrow bracket of millennials these kinds of books are about. But another part of me is almost repulsed by my interest because it is such a specific perspective. I want to relate but I also want to step out of my comfort zone and read about other experiences. For me, a book often clicks for reasons that have nothing to do with who or what it’s about, which is why I think I had such different reactions to the “millennial” books I’ve read.
Hear hear! Your comment reminded me of good read. Just to state, I HATE ( that's h a t e ) going to bars and or anything that has something to do with bar culture. Yet it kills me that to this day I cannot recall the name of a book I gobbled up in one day that was merely about some people in a bar, and that was it. I've never burned through pages of a book quicker.
@@Blake4625kHz I definitely share your hatred of bars. Just the thought of bar culture makes me uncomfortable. But I hope you find the book you remembered. I've had that experience before where I binge something I should have no business loving.
This was a fascinating discussion and it left me wanting to read all of the books you've mentioned. I love how you've argued that Lot is a different "but equally specific kind of millennial experience". YES, I'm so here for it!
Wow I know you promised you wouldn't talk about 'millenial fiction' any more but I honestly can't get enough of your observations on this pheomenon. Brilliant video as always! I was already interested in Luster and now also can't wait to pick up Lot as well. Greetings from Germany :)
I love the book reviews combined with critiques around media reviews. Claire, I love your videos and I'll continue to support your curiosity and dedication to learn more of the human experience through books.
I just found you yesterday and you are a superb reviewer. I am now a subscriber and look forward to your videos into the future. I am now reading Exciting times and just bought Luster, since my library has a long hold list for that one. I am a huge fan of Normal People and think the video series is an improvement on a very good novel.
Yikes, Claire. This knocked me out. Shouldn't you be teaching in a college somewhere, writing a book, or at least publishing in the socially relevant periodical outlets of the day? I love being educated in such an easy & pleasant way. I ended up reading 3 of the 6 books cited in your previous video, but somehow only the non-M ones mentioned. Even though I mostly read contemporary books I think will last (it's pretentious, but I only have so much time), but I *am* interested in the books of their time, just as F. Scott was seen as capturing the mood of his time with This Side of Paradise, or McInerny, Ellis, & Janowitz were once seen as the voice of their generation. An interesting collection could be made of books & authors that were seen (or hyped) as speaking for their times. I *will* look for Luster (52 holds for 10 copies at my library at the moment). Thank you for this video essay on M literature. You're my window on the world (at least the world of contemporary fiction). An idea for some future video if this is at all, in any way, probably not, interesting to you, maybe it's more a chat over coffee or wine subject than one for a video, but what books from over the last few to five years do you think will still be in print or being talked about 15-20 years from now (my interest here being more in younger or women writers, but it's all good)? Maybe that's a dumb question. One last thought, I find it a little annoying when authors go on for 10 pages on a shallow subject, then have a character acknowledge the shallowness of the discussion, as if that made it somehow less shallow. Sorry, Covid is making me cranky. Excellent video, you always make my day just a little bit better!
why are you literally such a king/queen/gender non-conforming sovereign with these quality responses/concepts? Who gave you the right? Always writing with informal eloquence. Kind of an icon.
I appreciate your mentions of “not rooted in any particular place or time” and “highly recommend that you check it out millennial or not.” I’m older than millennials but read (uh oh, here it comes) “millennial fiction” and still relate to its universal/timeless elements of interpersonal dynamics, a sense of belonging, sex, etc., if not necessarily to some of the more “millennial-specific” issues like overwhelming student debt. And any gaming culture references will be lost on me, but fortunately the “millennial” novels I’ve read have been bereft of them.
Totally - one of the other points I tried to make in the first "What Is Millennial Fiction?" video is that a lot of the qualities ascribed to millennial fiction are actually just symptoms of postmodern life so...more timeless and less generation-specific than the literary discourse would like you to think! :)
I’ve read Luster and Exciting Times and I absolutely love them both. I must say, I am mesmerized by this video as a fledgling booktuber. You are brilliant, and the ease with which you discuss these novels is mind-blowing, to say the least. I am so glad I discovered your channel! Looking forward to Lot and his next novel!
Claire Reads Books maybe, but your labor is not in vain. The end result is easy on the ears as well as interesting. And plus you are originally from the mid west 😄
I came across your channel while looking up *LUSTER* reviews. I'm blown away... Your analysis of millennial fiction and this book was incredible. I could listen to you all day. I look forward to watching more of your videos!
Hello I’m new to your channel. I’m a baby boomer who was brought up in a Brooklyn housing project. I Loved the book luster, but I disagree that it’s a millennial book at all. First of all, let me say that your Examination of the book was amazing even though I didn’t agree with it. As a survivor of sexual violence, poverty and By cultural identity problems, I have seen women like Edie my entire life. I took the book very seriously without the dark humor. I’ve seen situations where all of the plot points in the book can happen did happen to people I knew. Incidentally, I was brought up in the exact neighborhood where the main character fights with the rats in her apartment. I’ve seen women go to their married boyfriends homes and confront their wives. Indeed, when I was 15, I did that. I was smart enough to bring a friend along with me though. I agree with you that the book was wonderfully written. I think some reviews of the book at least on Goodreads mention points that border on micro aggressions. For example saying that it was unlikely that the protagonist would go to her boyfriends house. Or that the sentences were Overly Long. That made me angry.
Oh, you can talk about Millennial fiction anytime you want, for as long as you want. Though I do agree with the New York Times reviewer, that fiction is, or should be, timeless. And I think identity isn't a central theme of millennial fiction, but a central theme of most fiction, particularly when the characters are in their 20s, regardless of which generation they are a part of. I read the first page of Lustre somewhere, and agree, I must read the rest, what a strong opening.
I need to read Luster!!! And I've been on hold for Exciting Times for ten years it feels like. I also hadn't heard about Lot, which sounds like something I should keep on my radar. None of the "millennial" fiction I've read so far has talked about immigration except Severance
Can’t wait to hear what you think of Luster! And Lot is phenomenal (and agreed, besides Severance I think the only other millennial novel I’ve read that considers immigration is Chemistry, although that isn’t often lumped in with other “millennial fiction”).
Great review of Luster! You make a lot of interesting observations that were mulling around in my mind, but I didn’t have words for (yet). I’m a boomer and I am finding I really enjoy millennial fiction, you’re analysis is helpful with understanding this genre. I agree with you, I wanted Edie to have spent less time at Eric and Rebecca’s.
Another mesmerising presentation. I may be too old to grapple with any version of Millennial Fiction, but I'll give the Kindle samples of the three books a look.
What a fantastic video! I feel like I just received three great book reviews and a mini comparative literature class about representations of “millennials” in contemporary literature.
I'm a Millennial writer. I've published a handful of gothic short stories about rural degradation. Two self published horror novels. I can't tell you how right you are about the 20 something, white, educated perspective. I'm a white man with no higher education and I grew up in a swamp in the middle of nowhere.... Always makes me feel great to get a publication among a bunch of pedigreed urban writers. There seems to be no rural perspectives out there. I'll take up the mantle ;) Also, I very much believe that we are leaving behind an entire generation of male readers. I'm not a fan of identity-based fiction, and I think a lot of my male friend readers feel similarly... I think theres so much more out there that current fiction publishers aren't trying, to the detriment of sooo many potential lifelong readers
I found “Normal People” and “Exciting Times” painful to read and think about. Why read about these messy lives? I found nothing of value in these books. (I really enjoyed your analysis)
Just published: "Has Self-Awareness Gone Too Far in Fiction?" in the NEW YORKER by Katy Waldman. The article discusses "Exciting Times" and the writing of Sally Rooney. Read it for additional in depth analysis.
I appreciate your view point and loved this review of luster. I felt like I was reading a diary with luster I loved ravens writing in this book. New subbie.
As a millennial it's honestly bizarre that critics and commentators feel the need to define "millennial" fiction. I think the generational approach only works when you have some huge lifetime defining event like the world wars or the social upheaval of the 1960s that can't help but bleed into the experiences of the era's writers. The millennial experience is generally defined as being young or school age during 9/11 by cultural commentators yet very few millennial novels really touch on that and the overall vibe is more just 'disaffected, bored, aimless, and struggling' which you could easily assign to Gen X as well. Notably I found Lily King's Writers & Lovers to give off the same vibe as a lot of millennial books even though that book takes place in the 90's and is technically about a Gen X-er. Generally I feel like you could plop most of these books in the 90's and not too much would be lost since I think fiction has been slow to accept the new tech-savy ways in which millennial actually connect to each other (namely, dating apps, which don't really make an appearance in many of these stories cause it's not romantic).
Yeah, in my first millennial fiction video, I talked a bit about how the "hallmarks" of "millennial" fiction are more specific to being an educated 20-something living in an urban center, rather than specific to any particular generation ("My Year of Rest and Relaxation," for example, is a book that a lot of people incorrectly flag as millennial fiction when it is, in fact, set in 2001 and follows a 20-something, Gen X protagonist). I think you could make an argument for the Great Recession being a defining generational event for millennials, but again, it's not like millennials were the only ones who were affected by it. To your last point, Exciting Times is pretty refreshing in how it engages with and perfectly captures how millennials often use technology and social media, so if you're interested in seeing how a writer approaches that, I do recommend checking it out.
@@ClaireReadsBooks Yes! I did like the way Exciting Times used Instagram as it felt very specific to the online generation (how she knows how to check an insta story without it appearing that she saw the story.. which is like, would that whole sequence make any sense to someone who didn't use instagram). Also I felt like your review of Red White and Royal Blue hit on why that book really understands social media as well. There's such a specific language used in online platforms that I almost feel like differentiates millennial/Gen Z-ers more than anything else.
Eloquent as always!! I just talked about a book called A Room Called Earth which is released on August 18th in my latest video. It would definitely be classified as millennial fiction, but the author is autistic and the protagonist is as well, so I think the inclusion of a neuro divergent perspective is a good addition to shake up what would be included in this sub genre.
That's so interesting and such a great point! I will have to check it out. And interestingly, Naoise Dolan is autistic and has spoken about it in interviews (www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/19/naoise-dolan-im-not-good-at-presenting-myself-as-likable), although none of the characters in Exciting Times were explicitly identified as neurodivergent...perhaps it's something she will explore in future books.
I honestly never got the hype but whenever i googled for opinions like mine i never found them. To be fair, I did not read normal people, because conversations with friends had frustrated me to such a degree. It is such an empty book
Victoria Bercovitz I felt the same with Normal People and did not finish it. Rooney gives a lot of interviews she’s the best marketer of her own goods.
Sorry my voice app cut me off.I started my channel on my 70th birthday so Maybe my views are a bit antiquated, But I have children from generation X to Y and have seen many of the same millennial problems in all of us. Much aloha
To be frank, listening to your video made me happy to have been born a mellinal in the far mountain countryside, separate from the modern American paradigm. Sure, I faced difficulty when I moved to Japan, but I never was wracked by this racial conscious mindset, or had my belief and thought structure dictated by socialist thought. When I faced racism, I called it out directly. When I explained my experiences, I was called racist for critiquing a country that I was not born into. And then there is all of this capitalist is bad mojo I get off my generation... I just can't understand the mindset of these writers. I was a economic migrant from the countryside that was ravaged by Obama's healthcare policies and found a stable life abroad. And these are what I accomplished by age 20. I think that the rest of my generation need to face some true adversary and then realize that we really have it good. Because all of this self wallowing, well, it doesn't help anyone.
I am personally so drawn to "millennial fiction" because I love that focused character study of an in-your-head, somewhat unlikeable/realistic narrator, sexually and emotionally complicated, simple dialogue, lots of mundanity. I have loved Ottesa Moshfegh, Sally Rooney, and Kristen Roupenian. However, this type of novel obviously exists outside of millennial writers so I do wish there was another umbrella term for the genre... one of my other favorite writers who does this is Sheila Heti, and she is more in the Gen Z camp like Moshfegh. There's also Ben Lerner and Rachel Cusk with similar themes but not labeled this way. This week I have been reading "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin and realized she was doing all of this 100 years ago! I just wish I knew better how to find books in this niche.
Yes! Such great points - maybe if we all stopped leaning so heavily on umbrella terms we would could develop a more useful way of talking about the specifics of each book :)
Queen of casually being the lead literary theorist on the perpetually growing millennial literary fiction "movement" (?)
I am now ceding the floor to Gen Z! 😅
As a non millennial person I can say that the so called millennial books feel exciting in their initial phase then give place to some sort of self admiration with language acrobatics which tend to convey nothing but naive narcissism and unrealistic outcomes that only an inexperienced person could think of as realistic. BUT: you made me believe that Luster offers more than that, and your sharp perceptions convinced me that these three books have more consistency than the current avatars of millennial literature. Thaks for the video. Very enlightening.✌🏼
"Language acrobatics"
To me this is almost like the jittery camera movements put to entire lengths of tv shows/ movies to synthetically heighten the intensity and excitement of an underwhelming storyline. 🙄
Loved your insights!
I just read Luster and found it really good, but I couldn't bring myself to like Conversations with Friends.
I found Rooney's story was just about young people who had the privilege to not mature but needed to be self-aware enough to make up for the refuse to actually grow. And, though Eddie in Luster didn't really "mature" too, her resentment and sharpness of thoughts made more sense.
I suppose that whilst in Conversations with Friends the "honesty factor" felt more like a mechanism to pull in the reader - by causing shock or something like that - and didn't do anything to the characters journey, Leilani's way of writing felt like the sharpness was part of Eddie's identity, thus not really materring her growth or lack thereof.
I wasn't super keen on Conversations With Friends either! I like Normal People best of Sally Rooney's books, mostly because of the romance haha
I think you nailed it when you talked about the fact that we need to stop putting all books by millennial authors in the same bucket. I strongly disliked Normal People but absolutely loved Convenience Store Woman. Severance left me ambivalent. Part of me is attracted to books like Luster because I am part of the narrow bracket of millennials these kinds of books are about. But another part of me is almost repulsed by my interest because it is such a specific perspective. I want to relate but I also want to step out of my comfort zone and read about other experiences. For me, a book often clicks for reasons that have nothing to do with who or what it’s about, which is why I think I had such different reactions to the “millennial” books I’ve read.
Hear hear! Your comment reminded me of good read.
Just to state, I HATE ( that's h a t e ) going to bars and or anything that has something to do with bar culture. Yet it kills me that to this day I cannot recall the name of a book I gobbled up in one day that was merely about some people in a bar, and that was it. I've never burned through pages of a book quicker.
@@Blake4625kHz I definitely share your hatred of bars. Just the thought of bar culture makes me uncomfortable. But I hope you find the book you remembered. I've had that experience before where I binge something I should have no business loving.
You look so effortlessly beautiful! I can't wait to read "Luster".
Thank you so much :) and I hope you love it! :D
This was a fascinating discussion and it left me wanting to read all of the books you've mentioned. I love how you've argued that Lot is a different "but equally specific kind of millennial experience". YES, I'm so here for it!
Thank you so much! :)
Wow I know you promised you wouldn't talk about 'millenial fiction' any more but I honestly can't get enough of your observations on this pheomenon. Brilliant video as always! I was already interested in Luster and now also can't wait to pick up Lot as well.
Greetings from Germany :)
Haha, thank you! There's a chance I won't actually stick to that commitment, lol, so stay tuned :D
I love the book reviews combined with critiques around media reviews. Claire, I love your videos and I'll continue to support your curiosity and dedication to learn more of the human experience through books.
Thanks so much, Michelle 🤗
Luster is a favourite book of mine and I love Sally Rooney's books. So great analysis!
I just found you yesterday and you are a superb reviewer. I am now a subscriber and look forward to your videos into the future. I am now reading Exciting times and just bought Luster, since my library has a long hold list for that one. I am a huge fan of Normal People and think the video series is an improvement on a very good novel.
Thank you so much! :)
Yikes, Claire. This knocked me out. Shouldn't you be teaching in a college somewhere, writing a book, or at least publishing in the socially relevant periodical outlets of the day? I love being educated in such an easy & pleasant way. I ended up reading 3 of the 6 books cited in your previous video, but somehow only the non-M ones mentioned. Even though I mostly read contemporary books I think will last (it's pretentious, but I only have so much time), but I *am* interested in the books of their time, just as F. Scott was seen as capturing the mood of his time with This Side of Paradise, or McInerny, Ellis, & Janowitz were once seen as the voice of their generation. An interesting collection could be made of books & authors that were seen (or hyped) as speaking for their times. I *will* look for Luster (52 holds for 10 copies at my library at the moment). Thank you for this video essay on M literature. You're my window on the world (at least the world of contemporary fiction). An idea for some future video if this is at all, in any way, probably not, interesting to you, maybe it's more a chat over coffee or wine subject than one for a video, but what books from over the last few to five years do you think will still be in print or being talked about 15-20 years from now (my interest here being more in younger or women writers, but it's all good)? Maybe that's a dumb question. One last thought, I find it a little annoying when authors go on for 10 pages on a shallow subject, then have a character acknowledge the shallowness of the discussion, as if that made it somehow less shallow. Sorry, Covid is making me cranky. Excellent video, you always make my day just a little bit better!
why are you literally such a king/queen/gender non-conforming sovereign with these quality responses/concepts? Who gave you the right? Always writing with informal eloquence. Kind of an icon.
@@gregoryduke3527 Claire is very inspiring -- I just wanna be like her. She attracts the best people.
tortoise dreams you are also my mom’s favorite commenter! she doesn’t even watch my videos with the sound on but she knows who you are 😅
You have a great mom!
I appreciate your mentions of “not rooted in any particular place or time” and “highly recommend that you check it out millennial or not.” I’m older than millennials but read (uh oh, here it comes) “millennial fiction” and still relate to its universal/timeless elements of interpersonal dynamics, a sense of belonging, sex, etc., if not necessarily to some of the more “millennial-specific” issues like overwhelming student debt. And any gaming culture references will be lost on me, but fortunately the “millennial” novels I’ve read have been bereft of them.
Totally - one of the other points I tried to make in the first "What Is Millennial Fiction?" video is that a lot of the qualities ascribed to millennial fiction are actually just symptoms of postmodern life so...more timeless and less generation-specific than the literary discourse would like you to think! :)
Claire Reads Books Well put!
I’ve read Luster and Exciting Times and I absolutely love them both. I must say, I am mesmerized by this video as a fledgling booktuber. You are brilliant, and the ease with which you discuss these novels is mind-blowing, to say the least. I am so glad I discovered your channel! Looking forward to Lot and his next novel!
Thanks so much! That's very nice of you to say - but scripting and heavy editing make me sound a lot more coherent than I actually am! :D
Claire Reads Books maybe, but your labor is not in vain. The end result is easy on the ears as well as interesting. And plus you are originally from the mid west
😄
I came across your channel while looking up *LUSTER* reviews. I'm blown away... Your analysis of millennial fiction and this book was incredible. I could listen to you all day. I look forward to watching more of your videos!
This made my day! Thank you for stopping by :) (and have you read Luster yet? if so, what did you think?)
Claire Reads Books No, I have not, but it’s on my TBR!
Hello I’m new to your channel. I’m a baby boomer who was brought up in a Brooklyn housing project. I Loved the book luster, but I disagree that it’s a millennial book at all. First of all, let me say that your Examination of the book was amazing even though I didn’t agree with it.
As a survivor of sexual violence, poverty and By cultural identity problems, I have seen women like Edie my entire life. I took the book very seriously without the dark humor. I’ve seen situations where all of the plot points in the book can happen did happen to people I knew. Incidentally, I was brought up in the exact neighborhood where the main character fights with the rats in her apartment. I’ve seen women go to their married boyfriends homes and confront their wives. Indeed, when I was 15, I did that. I was smart enough to bring a friend along with me though. I agree with you that the book was wonderfully written. I think some reviews of the book at least on Goodreads mention points that border on micro aggressions. For example saying that it was unlikely that the protagonist would go to her boyfriends house. Or that the sentences were Overly Long. That made me angry.
Oh, you can talk about Millennial fiction anytime you want, for as long as you want. Though I do agree with the New York Times reviewer, that fiction is, or should be, timeless. And I think identity isn't a central theme of millennial fiction, but a central theme of most fiction, particularly when the characters are in their 20s, regardless of which generation they are a part of.
I read the first page of Lustre somewhere, and agree, I must read the rest, what a strong opening.
Hi Claire..!!! Great to hear from you...!!!!
I need to read Luster!!! And I've been on hold for Exciting Times for ten years it feels like. I also hadn't heard about Lot, which sounds like something I should keep on my radar. None of the "millennial" fiction I've read so far has talked about immigration except Severance
Can’t wait to hear what you think of Luster! And Lot is phenomenal (and agreed, besides Severance I think the only other millennial novel I’ve read that considers immigration is Chemistry, although that isn’t often lumped in with other “millennial fiction”).
Great review of Luster! You make a lot of interesting observations that were mulling around in my mind, but I didn’t have words for (yet). I’m a boomer and I am finding I really enjoy millennial fiction, you’re analysis is helpful with understanding this genre.
I agree with you, I wanted Edie to have spent less time at Eric and Rebecca’s.
Another mesmerising presentation. I may be too old to grapple with any version of Millennial Fiction, but I'll give the Kindle samples of the three books a look.
I think you might find Lot interesting...less millennial navel-gazing at the very least!
Nice to have your suggestion. Happy to dispense with naval-gazing.
What a fantastic video! I feel like I just received three great book reviews and a mini comparative literature class about representations of “millennials” in contemporary literature.
Thank you! 😀
omg this is genius i could talk about these book/this genre for hours!! loved this!!
thank you! :)
This is brilliant. Thoroughly enjoyed this insightful and crystal clear analysis.
thanks so much!
I'm a Millennial writer.
I've published a handful of gothic short stories about rural degradation.
Two self published horror novels.
I can't tell you how right you are about the 20 something, white, educated perspective.
I'm a white man with no higher education and I grew up in a swamp in the middle of nowhere....
Always makes me feel great to get a publication among a bunch of pedigreed urban writers.
There seems to be no rural perspectives out there. I'll take up the mantle ;)
Also, I very much believe that we are leaving behind an entire generation of male readers. I'm not a fan of identity-based fiction, and I think a lot of my male friend readers feel similarly... I think theres so much more out there that current fiction publishers aren't trying, to the detriment of sooo many potential lifelong readers
I found “Normal People” and “Exciting Times” painful to read and think about. Why read about these messy lives? I found nothing of value in these books. (I really enjoyed your analysis)
Just published: "Has Self-Awareness Gone Too Far in Fiction?" in the NEW YORKER by Katy Waldman. The article discusses "Exciting Times" and the writing of Sally Rooney. Read it for additional in depth analysis.
Just took a look - very interesting read! Thanks for flagging :)
I appreciate your view point and loved this review of luster. I felt like I was reading a diary with luster I loved ravens writing in this book. New subbie.
The writing in Luster is wonderful! Probably my favorite thing about it :)
As a millennial it's honestly bizarre that critics and commentators feel the need to define "millennial" fiction. I think the generational approach only works when you have some huge lifetime defining event like the world wars or the social upheaval of the 1960s that can't help but bleed into the experiences of the era's writers. The millennial experience is generally defined as being young or school age during 9/11 by cultural commentators yet very few millennial novels really touch on that and the overall vibe is more just 'disaffected, bored, aimless, and struggling' which you could easily assign to Gen X as well. Notably I found Lily King's Writers & Lovers to give off the same vibe as a lot of millennial books even though that book takes place in the 90's and is technically about a Gen X-er. Generally I feel like you could plop most of these books in the 90's and not too much would be lost since I think fiction has been slow to accept the new tech-savy ways in which millennial actually connect to each other (namely, dating apps, which don't really make an appearance in many of these stories cause it's not romantic).
Yeah, in my first millennial fiction video, I talked a bit about how the "hallmarks" of "millennial" fiction are more specific to being an educated 20-something living in an urban center, rather than specific to any particular generation ("My Year of Rest and Relaxation," for example, is a book that a lot of people incorrectly flag as millennial fiction when it is, in fact, set in 2001 and follows a 20-something, Gen X protagonist). I think you could make an argument for the Great Recession being a defining generational event for millennials, but again, it's not like millennials were the only ones who were affected by it.
To your last point, Exciting Times is pretty refreshing in how it engages with and perfectly captures how millennials often use technology and social media, so if you're interested in seeing how a writer approaches that, I do recommend checking it out.
@@ClaireReadsBooks Yes! I did like the way Exciting Times used Instagram as it felt very specific to the online generation (how she knows how to check an insta story without it appearing that she saw the story.. which is like, would that whole sequence make any sense to someone who didn't use instagram). Also I felt like your review of Red White and Royal Blue hit on why that book really understands social media as well. There's such a specific language used in online platforms that I almost feel like differentiates millennial/Gen Z-ers more than anything else.
Eloquent as always!! I just talked about a book called A Room Called Earth which is released on August 18th in my latest video. It would definitely be classified as millennial fiction, but the author is autistic and the protagonist is as well, so I think the inclusion of a neuro divergent perspective is a good addition to shake up what would be included in this sub genre.
That's so interesting and such a great point! I will have to check it out. And interestingly, Naoise Dolan is autistic and has spoken about it in interviews (www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/19/naoise-dolan-im-not-good-at-presenting-myself-as-likable), although none of the characters in Exciting Times were explicitly identified as neurodivergent...perhaps it's something she will explore in future books.
Claire Reads Books oh wow I love that! I haven’t read Exciting Times yet but it’s on my list and I love having this additional context.
Great discussion. I’ve only read a few of these and sometimes I feel I’ve hit my limit (I put The New Me down after 10 pages), but Lot is on my list.
I completely understand that, haha - hopefully Lot will feel like a breath of fresh air :)
Such a fascinating discussion, Claire!
Thanks, Jaclyn! :D
I have nothing to say except that I loved this video and I'm going to run out to find Luster and Lot now!
Woo! :D
did you delete your rupi kaur video? that was a classic
I think Sally Rooney's works are a juvenile attempt at a novel (millennial fiction???). How's she suddenly a significant figure?
I honestly never got the hype but whenever i googled for opinions like mine i never found them. To be fair, I did not read normal people, because conversations with friends had frustrated me to such a degree. It is such an empty book
Victoria Bercovitz I felt the same with Normal People and did not finish it. Rooney gives a lot of interviews she’s the best marketer of her own goods.
Sorry my voice app cut me off.I started my channel on my 70th birthday so Maybe my views are a bit antiquated, But I have children from generation X to Y and have seen many of the same millennial problems in all of us. Much aloha
WOW! Outstanding video!!
i would love to podcast with you ^_^
To be frank, listening to your video made me happy to have been born a mellinal in the far mountain countryside, separate from the modern American paradigm.
Sure, I faced difficulty when I moved to Japan, but I never was wracked by this racial conscious mindset, or had my belief and thought structure dictated by socialist thought. When I faced racism, I called it out directly. When I explained my experiences, I was called racist for critiquing a country that I was not born into. And then there is all of this capitalist is bad mojo I get off my generation...
I just can't understand the mindset of these writers. I was a economic migrant from the countryside that was ravaged by Obama's healthcare policies and found a stable life abroad. And these are what I accomplished by age 20.
I think that the rest of my generation need to face some true adversary and then realize that we really have it good. Because all of this self wallowing, well, it doesn't help anyone.
YESSSSSSSSSS
when you talk about millennial fiction it sounds like you're describing a tom perrotta book