Reviewed By

Douglas M. Thorpe

When Mary Pipher set out to write this book she expected to find that the greatest difference between baby boomers and their parents would lie in their comfort with technology. Cable TV with remote control, compact disc changers, VCRs, cell phones, and, most of all, computers have only come into widespread use in the last twenty years.

Pipher was surprised to find she was wrong - and she was honest enough to admit it. Although ease with technology often separates the generations, the true "great divide" is psychology. The post-war generation is psychologically-minded in a way that no previous generation has been. We (I was born in 1958) express our feelings, we "share," we devour self-help books, we go to therapy and 12-step programs, we speak readily of denial, repression, self-esteem, and Freudian slips. Those raised before the war, by contrast, were taught not to express their feelings, not to "air their dirty laundry" in public. They learned stoicism, self-reliance, and self-sacrifice - virtues now widely regarded as outmoded and even dangerous.

Pipher's book helps baby boomers understand - and appreciate - the virtues and values of our aging parents. It is a warm-hearted book, tinged with Pipher's nostalgia for a life that was slower and simpler, and afforded more opportunities for contact with extended, multi-generational families. In a time when geography and lifestyle wedge the generations farther apart, Pipher holds out the hope that our parents may still teach us and our children wise lessons about life.