Wow, No Thank You.: Essays

Irby was born in 1980, the last year denoted as belonging to Generation X and the first year assigned to the Millennial Generation. Those born between 1977 and 1983 are increasingly referred to as “Xennials,” a term originated by author Sarah Stankorb in 2014. Like Irby, born in 1980, Stankorb describes herself and others of her “microgeneration” as being caught in the middle historically and culturally between two seemingly very different generations. She writes, “Between the out-all-night dark horse Gen Xers and the-sunny-still-somehow-optimistic Millennial, there we were. We were born at dawn” (Stankorb, Sarah. “Reasonable People Disagree about the Post-Gen X, Pre-Millennial Generation.” 2014. Good). Stankorb’s remarks mirror the essence of Irby’s writing in that Irby describes a plethora of potentially depressing circumstances, events, and individuals, yet does so in retrospect with humor and hope. Irby has survived sketchy parenting, lack of social support, romantic entanglements, total absence of economic opportunity, and at least three debilitating physical conditions. She writes about all these topics from the unique perspective of a child born 20 years before the 21^st century who finally achieves notoriety and a greater degree of stability 20 years after the new century began.