Racing Ourselves: Stories from the Frontlines of Suburban Striver Culture

Abstract

In Racing Ourselves: Stories from the Frontlines of Suburban Striver Culture, author Emily Gaines Buchler delves into the hypercompetitive achievement culture in which she lives, works, and raises a family, Towson, Maryland, a suburb on the outskirts of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Her compilation of essays question the world in which she lives, contemplating the sanity of the very cultural trends she embraces: year-round, travel sports for her kids; workaholism and extreme racing (think: IronMan competitions) among parents; and kid birthday parties with kegs of craft beer. In each story, she considers the costs of going all in with her peers and questions where the drive and pressure to live this way come from. She holds a microscope not only to her peers but also to herself as she attempts to cut down on her obsessive Googling of health problems and competing over “busyness” among friends. At times funny and satirical and other times edgy and judgmental, Racing Ourselves ultimately investigates how to live and find meaning in today’s complicated, contradictory educated class culture.