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A review by katiemack
Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era by Saul Austerlitz
4.0
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I have a complicated relationship with the show; it was a huge part of my life as a teenager, and my friends and I even embarked on a mission to watch all ten seasons my freshman year of college, but I now cringe at the homophobic remarks and other insensitive plot lines of the show, and I still fume when I think about Amaani Lyle's awful experience with the writers on the show (which later turned into a lawsuit). Also, I've listened to Andrew Reich on enough podcast episodes to find him obnoxious and man-splainey.
Thankfully, Saul Austerlitz doesn't shy away from these aspects of the show's history; I appreciated that he interviewed Lyle and made her experience into its own chapter. It's clear that Austerlitz deserves his reputation as a prolific author and historian of pop culture; his narrative structure is excellent. He also managed to invoke even more nostalgia for the show than I thought I could ever have.
I have a complicated relationship with the show; it was a huge part of my life as a teenager, and my friends and I even embarked on a mission to watch all ten seasons my freshman year of college, but I now cringe at the homophobic remarks and other insensitive plot lines of the show, and I still fume when I think about Amaani Lyle's awful experience with the writers on the show (which later turned into a lawsuit). Also, I've listened to Andrew Reich on enough podcast episodes to find him obnoxious and man-splainey.
Thankfully, Saul Austerlitz doesn't shy away from these aspects of the show's history; I appreciated that he interviewed Lyle and made her experience into its own chapter. It's clear that Austerlitz deserves his reputation as a prolific author and historian of pop culture; his narrative structure is excellent. He also managed to invoke even more nostalgia for the show than I thought I could ever have.