
Y2K, Colette Shade's debut collection of 10 perceptive essays, contrasts the promises and pitfalls of what she calls "the Y2K era," 1997-2008.
Shade, an adolescent at the turn of the millennium, recalls the thrill of early Internet use and celebrity culture. Her dot-com entrepreneur uncle invested $100,000 toward her college education and retired at 45. It seemed life could only get better, but this was a "dream state," Shade writes: "We dreamt we were ascending into the future" and "everyone could get rich on the stock market, drive a Hummer, own a McMansion."
Consumerism was the fundamental doctrine, Shade argues. A nascent antiglobalization movement ended with 9/11, after which Americans were expected to prove their patriotism by purchasing. The 2008 financial crash was a further turning point and, for Shade's generation, who were entering the working world, prompted a loss of faith in progress.
Y2K effectively illustrates the zeitgeist through well-chosen details and personal anecdotes. Shade recounts how bling-era rap music's mainstream success was seen as evidence of postracial and postfeminist harmony, and discusses how a "hypersexual" culture and an aesthetic of "paleness... blondness... [and] thinness..." shared by the period's most successful models contributed to her disordered eating.
The collection isn't stuck in the past but traces the way into the present. As Shade considers how such disparate topics as climate change and Starbucks became political footballs, she highlights U.S. society's increasing polarization. The 2016 election of Donald Trump sparked, for Shade, déjà vu to George W. Bush's anti-intellectualism.
Outer space motifs, reality television, Smashmouth lyrics: Y2K is a feast of millennial nostalgia. Yet this hard-hitting work of cultural criticism, recommended for Jia Tolentino fans, reminisces only to burst bubbles. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader and blogger at Bookish Beck