If I'd Known Then....

So, I read a book and now I shall review it - as usual.  

The book - "If I'd Known Then: Women in Their 20s and 30s write Letters to Their Younger Selves" edited by Ellyn Spragins.   In short, it contains a bunch of short chapters (3-7 pages) which starts with a brief explanation of some period of turmoil or challenge in her younger years and then her letter.  There are some major heavy hitters featured in the book - Jessica Alba, Sasha Cohen, Natasha Bedingfield, and some business bigwigs who might not carry the name recognition.

Now, I definitely found most of the women's stories interesting - not necessarily their personal struggle but their path to success.  As usual, I liked the format of short stories (this could lead to a lot of potential snide comments about my attention span, etc.).  

However, a couple criticisms.  I honestly wasn't all that impressed with the letters.  There seemed to be one constant message every woman was saying to herself - 'hey, hang in there'.  All of the advice almost every woman offered herself was, for the most part, predictable.   

Although I liked the short format - perhaps it was too abbreviated for the reader to be able to fully grasp this woman and her situation - it all comes off as general vague truisms.  At times it seems as though this woman has truly written the letter to herself, meant for no one else to see, and it was somehow snatched from her home like a sex tape stolen by the paparazzi - the nicknames, references to (presumably) inside jokes - there was something about some of the letters that left the reader outside the woman's circumstance.

I must say, I can only assume the book was meant to be inspirational; although I enjoyed reading it, I wasn't particularly inspired.  Perhaps part of the issue was that, although it explained the women's success, it didn't explain the journey there, nor did it really explain how these women overcame these points of adversity in their lives - it merely identified the situation and then came the 'ooh ooh child, things are gonna get easier' note.  

I guess another qualm I have with the book, in general - most of these women's 'traumas' weren't all that interesting or out of the ordinary.  The only ones that really stuck out to me - Aimee Mullins (an athlete/actress/model with prosthetic legs), Zainab Salbi (an Iraqi woman sent into an arranged abusive marriage), and Bethany Hamilton (a pro surfer who lost an arm in a shark attack in her teen years).  

Other than that - there was an overwhelming amount of 'I was a nerd in junior high/high school, people called me names, I had no friends, I ate lunch alone in the library'.  Although I'm sure of the profound effect this had on these women's lives - in comparison with the other stories - it couldn't help but look whiny (in comparison with a life changing disability, in my book,  this crisis screams 'count your blessings').  

I guess this raises two questions to me - how long does the trauma of a brief childhood stint with unpopularity last?  And, more importantly - if one looks at the resumes of these participants - are dorks the ones ruling the world?!?!!

Food for thought.

Also, after reading this book, I couldn't help but want to write a letter to a younger Jaime.  However, that is obviously way too personal to ever publish on this blog.