American memoirs that take place around Y2K-2012
August 10, 2021 9:35 PM   Subscribe

I'm feeling nostalgic and looking for American memoirs (or personal essays) that take place during this time period and reflect on it.

Extra points if they involve 9/11 and/or the Occupy Wall Street movement. (But not required, and taking place outside of NYC is fine too although urban settings preferred).

Not really interested in fiction unless it's very closely based on someone's real life experiences.
posted by CancerSucks to Writing & Language (4 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Vanishing New York covers a lot of this time period and sounds like it might be up your alley if you haven't already read it. Not really a memoir, but a book-length personal essay/polemic.
posted by snaw at 3:38 AM on August 11, 2021


Kurt Vonnegut’s A Man Without A Country
posted by glaucon at 6:12 AM on August 11, 2021


Uneducated by Tara Westover. Her family lived off the grid in rural Idaho and her father was very concerned about prepping for Y2K. Definitely not an urban setting but still very worth a read.
posted by carolr at 11:44 AM on August 11, 2021


Not sure if it quite checks the memoir box , but your post made me think of Jane Jacobs' Dark Age Ahead, released in 2003 or 2004 near the start of the time period you're interested in. Pretty prescient about a lot things that would unfold in the coming years including the economic crisis, etc. Also its Jane Jacobs so it meets your urban criterion! One of the earlier voices from that period where it seemed everything started to fall off some kind of cliff (of course the book was panned at the time, though it's been more appreciated in recent years).

Also, the film Shortbus (not a book!, and fiction!, came out 2005 or so?) kind of fits with the general nostalgia of that time and place you're describing. I think there are allusions to 9/11 and the east coast blackouts at the time... I dunno, it seemed to catch the feeling of being a certain kind of person, living in a place like NY/SF, etc during the start of Bush II's inconceivable second term.
posted by flamk at 11:53 PM on October 6, 2021


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