cover image Grown Ups

Grown Ups

Cheryl Merser. Putnam Publishing Group, $17.95 (237pp) ISBN 978-0-399-13233-9

Merser, finding little of relevance to her life as a young single of the '80s in Gail Sheehy's Passages, set out to chart her own generation's concerns. Whereas Sheehy told the story of ""our parents' lives,'' Merser addresses an age group that has fewer and different signposts, who only at a later stage, or not at all, follow their parents' leadcareer, marriage, children, mortgage. For babyboomers, she contends, the passage to adulthood takes longer. It invovles coming to terms with loneliness and looking for identity that is not synonymous with one's work. The bench marks are not as consistent or dependable, nor as restrictive as were the earlier generation's. In her exploration of generational differences, Mercer (Honorable Intentions: The Manners of Courtship in the '80s), has written a thoughtful, poignant questioning book. First serial to Self. (October 5)