Why We Can't Sleep

Women's New Midlife Crisis

By: Ada Calhoun

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Paperback | 21 January 2021

At a Glance

Paperback
288 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
13 x 19.6 x 2.5

Paperback

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When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too?

Calhoun decided to find some answers. She looked into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages and divorce data. At every turn, she saw a pattern: sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age, problems that were being largely overlooked.

Speaking with women across America about their experiences as the generation raised to 'have it all,' Calhoun found that most were exhausted, terrified about money, under-employed, and overwhelmed. Instead of their issues being heard, they were told instead to lean in, take 'me-time' or make a chore chart to get their lives and homes in order.

In Why We Can't Sleep, Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X's predicament and offers solutions for how to pull oneself out of the abyss - and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them.

Industry Reviews

Candid and engaging. [Calhoun] is a funny, smart, compassionate narrator... I admired her insistence on taking women's concerns seriously. -- Curtis Sittenfeld * New York Times Book Review *
An engaging hybrid of first-person confession, reportage, pop culture analysis, and statistics... it aspires to something larger than memoir. * New Republic *
Calhoun speaks directly to her own generation, peppering the book with so many specific cultural touchstones... that I found reading Why We Can't Sleep to be a singular experience - driving home her point that Gen X is so often overlooked. * Minneapolis Star Tribune *
An assured, affable guide, Calhoun balances bleakness with humor and the hope inherent in sharing stories that will make other women feel less alone. * Booklist *
Ada Calhoun's soulful investigation into the complex landscape women in midlife face today is downright stunning... You will recognize yourself in these pages, breathe a sigh of relief, and think, I'm not alone. -- Susannah Cahalan, author of BRAIN ON FIRE

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