_Generation X_ by Douglas Coupland is the book that coined the title phrase identifying the disenfranchised, slacker twentysomething generation. A group of friends in southern California move from McJob to McJob (low pay, low prestige, low benefit, no future job), trapped of their own accord in an America whose cultural icons they both envy and despise. They bemoan the generations before them who they feel to have stolen their future, yet also covet the wealth and comfort of previous generations.

This book was a great deal more interesting than I expected, and often captures the bitterness of the so-called Generation X towards a society in which they believe they have no place except at the fringes. Recommended.