Surviving Gen X by Jo Szewczyk; Bizarre, Confusing, and Witty Mish-Mash of Getting Laid and Finding Love in 1990’s Las Vegas

 Surviving Gen X by Jo Szewczyk; Bizarre, Confusing, and Witty Mish-Mash of Getting Laid and Finding Love in 1990’s Las Vegas

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It wouldn't surprise me if Jo Szewczyk’s Surviving Gen X existed in the same universe as Richard R. Becker’s Third Wheel. It almost could be a stealth sequel. Third Wheel was a seriocomic Crime Thriller about a geeky but troubled kid in 80’s Las Vegas encountering a bevy of eccentric criminals in an attempt to stave off boredom and get rich. Surviving Gen X is a seriocomic Literary Fiction about a disaffected 20 something in 90’s Las Vegas encountering a bevy of eccentric friends, acquaintances, and lovers in an attempt to stave off loneliness and get laid. Between the two books, there appears to be a natural progression of age and experience that develops within the protagonists the more they venture into Sin City at various points in their lives.

Surviving Gen X doesn’t have much in the way of plot. It focuses on an unnamed Narrator who goes from one misadventure to another. He encounters little people, runaway Mormons, glam rock tribute bands, persistent exes, violent crooks,gamblers, apartment crashers who never leave, bartenders with suspect mob ties. BDSM club goers, homicidal religious types, addicts, prostitutes, and many other colorful locals and tourists that Las Vegas has to offer. 

The book bounces around in an excitable stream of conscious manner which is less concerned with what happens than how these incidents are seen through the Narrator’s eyes. He is a sarcastic jaded character who is filled with dry one liners. (At a costume party someone mistakes his Willy Wonka costume for Prince. He sarcastically tells the Reader, “My name is not Prince and I am not funky.”) He observes everything with a wry detachment that alternates between bemused excitement and world weariness at the shenanigans in which he falls into. 

The Narrator isn’t exactly the warmest of souls. He is quite often shallow and careless in his feelings towards others particularly in his romantic relationships. He cares more about getting some than getting into a relationship. When he finds someone that he actually does care about, he pursues her behaving like a stalker instead of someone who is truly considerate about what she wants and how he is making life difficult for her. 

Nonetheless, he does show genuine understanding and concern towards others. After a very weird night, he meets Gene, a French little person. The two bond while they are in jail and escape together. The two become friends united in their pursuit of women and potential happiness. The Narrator and Gene assist each other in their romantic troubles and usually find themselves in various hapless situations but emerge with their friendship intact.

The Narrator also has a potentially developing relationship with Annie, an unhappily married Mormon woman. His pursuit of her is problematic but it is born out of genuine concern especially when he encounters her abusive religious husband. There is a genuine concern for her welfare and even if the Narrator is not always wise in his gestures towards her, he does care about her beyond a one night stand. The Narrator’s relationships with Gene and Annie veer towards heart in a novel that is more concerned with showing the surface of life in Las Vegas and little of the substance.

Actually the most important character is not Gene, Annie, or even the Narrator. It is Las Vegas itself. It is shown in all of its facets. There are various chapters like one set at the Fetish and Fantasy Ball, an elaborate masquerade in which one's darkest sexual desires are filled, which show the city in all of its licentious weirdness. It is seen as vibrant, loud, obnoxious, intoxicating, iconoclastic, lascivious, tacky, exciting, and hypnotic. It is the type of city where it’s easy to find a good time but not easy to find a peace of mind.

That’s what the setting does to the characters. They are aware of the shallowness and fall into it. They can’t find anything meaningful so they drink, party, have sex, and live for the moment. It is not the cry of free spirits. It is the cry of desperate souls who are drowning in the ennui of their excitement. They have given up on looking for any meaning. They just want to have a good time even when they are sick of it. 

That’s what the Narrator wants to find: some meaning in his life. Something beyond the surface shallow world that surrounds him. But finding unhappiness in his pursuits causes him to withdraw even more into that shallowness. Ironically the title is called Surviving Gen X because that’s all that he is doing. He is surviving, but not growing, developing, or really living.