CAREER CRASH

An affable, helpful look at the baby boomer generation's seemingly distinctive form of midlife emergency—losing a job and being unable to find another—by Glassner (Sociology/Univ. of Southern California; Bodies, 1988; Drugs in Adolescent Worlds, 1987). Corporate downsizing, a long recession, and inflated career expectations leading to midlife disappointment—these are the reasons why half a million boomer managers and professionals were out of work as of mid-1993, writes Glassner, who goes on to create a taxonomy of the unemployed: those suddenly fired from middle- management jobs; some who bitterly ``divorce'' their medical or legal careers after many years; rebel ``do-gooders'' who lose their sense of mission or their funding; couples who alternate on the unemployment line; and people who've simply burned out from careers chosen too early and in accordance with parents' or teachers' preferences. Chock-a-block with convincing case histories and empathetic advice from experts both establishment and countercultural, the book prescribes a kind of career ``mourning'' period, a ``comeback'' strategy that involves ``cutting lose,'' ``hanging out,'' and finally moving on to new and happier work lives. Timely and readable career advice.