"Neal Pollack has positioned himself the grup poster child," except that in that horrific NYTimes mag article, "Grups" are defined as shallow fashion plates who are incredibly wealthy. Pollack is neither a fashion plate, nor wealthy, and in his book Alternadad, he is hardly shallow, documenting his family's middle-class struggles with housing, health insurance, and quality schooling. Nowhere does he mention $700 ripped jeans or Bugaboo strollers.
The editor seems wary enough of that article to admit having avoided being quoted in it herself, yet she seems to swallow the bit about Pollack hook, line, and sinker. Having read Alternadad, I do not believe that Pollack's portrayal in that article is fair or accurate. It's media. As Ms Calhoun suggests, the whole gist of that article is to dismiss Gen X parents as vain, shallow, and childish. While Pollack's persona of past may fit that bill, the Pollack we see at the end of Alternadad is a responsible, civic-minded, playful, affectionate - albeit still free-thinking- daddy.
This is why I have a hard time believing that people who are dismissing Pollack as just a self-centered ass have actually read the entire book. Over the course of the book, Pollack grows up a little with his son. He's honest and skilled enough to make use of his own lesser qualities as fodder for his humor. Just because he maintains a humorous and sarcastic tone while describing his family life, does mean his feelings are shallow or lacking. Quite the opposite.
