Kudos to author Steven Joseph for his focus on a little-examined topic: crankiness. A follow-up to his child-focused title on the subject (The Last Surviving Dinosaur), A GROWNUP GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE CRANKINESS is aimed firmly at adults, who are also prone to the same condition. Joseph introduces the concept of the ‘Crankatsuris’ – an adoption of a Yiddish word, tsuris, the idea of a problem that weighs on the psyche in what amounts to an almost conversational contest of sorrows. A firm point is made early on: amid the stress of the modern world, many of us tend to focus on what bothers us, and not what we already have or have already achieved.
Aimed firmly at the various forms of stress of modern adulthood and the crankiness they inevitably evoke–as Joseph points out, what other creature is born yelling?–it’s in our nature to whine and snap– the story of A GROWNUP GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE CRANKINESS is one of personal experience blended with tips and concepts. There are plenty of tales of Joseph’s life to be enjoyed, many of them only abstractly related to the point of the particular chapter they occupy, but they add color to what would otherwise be a dry subject, and allow readers to relate to where the author is coming from–be it through his love of food and cooking, or his close-knit family.
Those tales aside, the text addresses various forms of crankiness, with titles for chapters like ‘the Crankatsuris Caterpillar’ (aimed at the crotchety teenager), or ‘Crankatsuris Madness’, in which Joseph uses his legal expertise to address the idea that arguing logically in emotion-based discussion is just stunningly ineffective, and sure to rankle. The book’s key principle being that crankiness can be worked around within various relationships quite successfully if readers are simply brave enough to put out there that they’re feeling highly strung at a specific time in the first place. Most will relate to the idea of feeling stressed and unhappy (especially these days) and A GROWNUP GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE CRANKINESS offers tips to adjust one’s behavior to more to empathy rather than feeling personally attacked, which can lead to a more negative outcome.
For readers who are often plagued by the creature dubbed the Crankatsuris, this could be essential reading. For others, it provides a little insight into human psychology . While a little childish and self-absorbed at times, but in truth, probably the better read for it. And the concept… the concept is long overdue a firm addressing, acknowledgement, and a good dose of human empathy. For that, we can only applaud.
A smart, sharp take on human psychology as it relates mood, Steven Joseph’s A GROWNUP GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE CRANKINESS is simultaneously playful and serious and covers a niche topic impressively well.
~James Hendicott for IndieReader