Grade:

A

Once you hit 20 you are old. Face it. Responsibility is not just unloading the dishwasher or straightening up your room anymore. Another sort of "cleaning" seems inevitable, and it has to do with organizing your life.

"Regeneration: Telling Stories From Our Twenties," by Jennifer Karlin and Amelia Borofsky, is a book of short stories, poems, photographs and paintings. During a time when change is your permanence, expression through art is called for in every medium.

First of all, do not be turned off by what seems like a scattered and over-stimulating publishing. In most cases, this type of book seems like a good idea but eventually gets lost under your bed and you have no idea for years. However, the idea works here because it mimics the central theme of the book. Your twenties are very scattered, over-stimulating, crazy and confusing years ö so frenzied that I had to use all of those adjectives in one sentence.

However, the breadth of the book is in the short stories, and these stories are quality writing. Today, only the long read and the quick read, the fiction novel and the Walgreen's magazine receive attention. This book defines the importance of the realistic read. The voices tell of a phone call received at work or a bus ride on the Greyhound ÷ based only on a moment, but a moment that ricochets time and time again off the foundations of your life.

Many compilation books are stories from ordinary people, transcribed by professional writers, which is not quite a documentary because the story is supposedly still in the voice of that ordinary person. That form of storytelling seems contrived, strained, and dishonest. But these are real stories written by dedicated writers in a voice that is true and universal.

A couple of exceptional pieces were "The Sky is Big and Full of Shit," "No One Knows My Name," "Pressure" and "Taking Socrates to the Movies."

They tell of loneliness, isolation, promised promotions and endless possibilities. On the topic of home, Shannon Peach says "home is wherever I throw my clothes on the floor."

Most importantly, this book is hysterical. The humor is similar to Jerry Seinfeld's ÷ it is the ironic and unsettling seconds of your day that are really funny, the times where you step back, realize the absurdity, and ask yourself, "Am I the sort of person who fondles strangers on dark buses?"

This book is recommended to people who are in their twenties and undeniably aware that they are in their twenties, since everything in our lives seems to be screaming our age ÷ from the boss at your internship who feels like he is doing you a favor paying $5.25 for the ten hours you put in a day, to the bitter old baby boomer who treats you like you're incompetent. However, the truth is they are jealous and would do anything to have their youth again.