Why We Can't Sleep by Ada Calhoun

What is Generation X, who falls into it, do you? Reading Ada Calhoun’s interesting book, Why We Can’t Sleep is like sitting on the sofa, chatting with a friend who is telling you that you’re not going mad.

Why We Can’t Sleep (buy it here) is aimed at Generation X women specifically, my generation, and it really helped me understand our generation a little better. I reacted to reading about my generation is a little like reading my horoscope: loved and laughed about the positive generalisations and pondered over the accuracy of the negative traits.

So who is Generation X? If you were born between 1965 and 1980 that’s you. We are sandwiched between the Boomers and Millenials. Although the book is US-centric us Brits can relate to almost all of it except for the chapter relating to healthcare. Ada’s writing style is chatty and in the style of memoir but she is an experienced journalist and the methodical research shows. Weaving in statistics without losing the narrative she puts our travails in context.

The connecting thread through the chapters is the angst the women in our generation feel as we were raised and pushed to ‘have it all’. To aim for CEO and top executive positions while simultaneously raising happy children and having a fulfilling social life. When most of us couldn’t do that we internalised the failure and a disappointment rather than understanding things that were going on around us, such as economic crashes, negative policies by governments, income instability as a result and shrinking opportunities. Over qualified and underemployed.

I might make it sound like a dreadful book given what I just described but there are real laugh out loud moments and it’s a joy to read simply because Ada manages to articulate many of the thoughts we might share.

My sister and I, both Gen X and even before hearing about this book we would reflect on these subjects. It really is reassuring to feel we aren’t alone.