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BIO
Dan Zevin is the author of ENTRY-LEVEL LIFE, THE NEARLY-WED HANDBOOK, and THE DAY I TURNED UNCOOL. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Zevin provides comic relief as he and his fans face their next transition -- from twentysomething to thirtysomething, and embarrassed to find themselves acting their age.
A Talk with Author Dan Zevin
Q: Let's start with the title. What really is "uncool" about being an adult?
DZ: Well, by the end of the book, I discover that it's very cool to be an adult, but it only comes after I have a little midlife crisis. Most people start feeling uncool when they start feeling like their parents. You spend your twenties and before that your teen years coming up with a definition of "cool" that is usually the furthest thing from your parents. But once you hit your thirties, you just kind of find yourself turning into them. It all really comes down to adjusting to a new definition of "cool." And for some of us, like, say…me, the adjustment phase just takes a little longer. Maybe it's a guy thing.
Q: How'd you get the idea to write the book?
DZ: Every New Year's Eve, I spend the weekend with the same group of friends I met in college. The past couple of years I've noticed that none of us can stay up until midnight, everyone has these special dietary restrictions, one couple can't make it anymore because they had a baby, and my own primary concern is now whether there's going to be a king size bed for my wife and I because otherwise we'll get insomnia. Not to mention our very-scaled down definition of "party." Let's put it this way. In my mid twenties, I wouldn't have gotten hung over after drinking more than 2 beers. But the most intense drug experience I've had in my mid-thirties has been double dosing on ibuprofen. And I only need that because I get sore from exercising at my health club. Do you believe I joined a health club? Not to long ago, a "club" referred to a place where we went to see a band that started at midnight. Now I refuse to see any concert where I can't sit down.
Q: What was the day YOU turned uncool?
DZ: Well, I was never exactly the Fonz to begin with, but there were many, many days--and each one is a different chapter in the book. There was the day I first played golf, the day I went to a wine tasting, the day I hired a cleaning lady. Lately I find myself completely obsessed with my lawn. The other day, I bought like 20 bags of cow manure at Home Depot. When I spread it out to fertilize the garden, it occurred to me that I'd just spent 65 bucks on a steaming pile of crap. Literally.
Q: Do you consider yourself mature? Responsible?
DZ: Of course not. And I have a feeling that deep down, nobody else does either. I teach a class at a college and sometimes I feel more like one of the students than the teacher, until they remind me that I am old. I consider myself a "reluctant" grown-up, which is why I guess I was able to write a funny book about adulthood. I actually think it's funny that I've turned into someone who owns three fire extinguishers and always buys enough Halloween candy. I'd rather be a reluctant grown-up than a "regular" grownup. Regular grownups have no sense of humor.
Q: Seriously, wine-tasting and golf may seem like adult activities, but not in the adventures described in THE DAY I TURNED UNCOOL. Are you really a Grown-up?
DZ: Physically, yes. Mentally, no. You will notice that I fail miserably at most of the adult adventures I undertake in the book. Golf? I think I'll stick with mini-golf.
Q: I was particularly amused by your attendance at an etiquette class, but I couldn't help observing that the other students were under the age of 10. What was that all about?
DZ: I figured I better enroll in a class with people of my own mental age. Everyone who's my actual age already seems to know all about etiquette and manners. That's why I enrolled in the first place–seemed like the adult thing to do. Of course, the kids were way more sophisticated than I was.
Q: Is Bruce Springsteen a symbol of adulthood? I thought he was the voice of youthful rebellion.
DZ: I don't know, he seems like one of us–another reluctant grown-up. I wrote about going to one of his concerts with my parents in New Jersey, which seemed very uncool at the time but which turned out to be one of the coolest family outings ever. It got me in touch with my New Jersey upbringing. Thanks to Bruce, or "the Bruce" as my father calls him, I no longer lie when people ask me where I'm from.
Q: Going out to dinner vs. hanging out at the bar--when does one make the switch?
DZ: In our twenties, we used to go out drinking. In our thirties, we go out eating. It's the Yuppie affliction–we've become a generation of restaurant critics. I read Zagat's like a Bible. I used to read Rolling Stone like a Bible. There's a confession for you.
Q: You have a dog, but not a child. Is there some fear about the final frontier of adulthood?
DZ: Fear of Fatherhood is a biggie for us reluctant grown-ups. But I'm starting to get those paternal instincts lately. It seems like it would be really fun to have an excuse to play with remote control airplanes and stuff.
(c) Copyright 2002, Villard, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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