cover image A Generation Alone: Xers Making a Place in the World

A Generation Alone: Xers Making a Place in the World

William Mahedy. InterVarsity Press, $11.99 (183pp) ISBN 978-0-8308-1696-5

This probing book takes an inside and personal look at the spiritual life of America's so-called ``Generation X,'' that group born between 1963 and 1983. To the pessimistic examinations of Xers provided us by other writers, Mahedy and Bernardi contribute their findings, concluding that Xers, like Vietnam vets, are really victims of post-traumatic stress disorder. As heirs to a polluted, overpopulated world, as latch-key kids and video junkies, Xers, the authors find, are spiritually dispossessed. Ironically, they argue, the Xer sense of isolation is amplified by the churches, the very institutions that, with their spiritual traditions, should be best equipped to bring the dispossessed into fellowship and community, but that instead seem to drive them futher into despair. Mahedy and Bernardi have done us the great service of launching a necessary discussion; and their work will be an important stimulus for boomers and Xers who struggle to find wholeness. (July)