The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen

I heard about this book relatively late in it's life on Michael Feldman's "Whad'Ya know?" in late January 2008. Like most of the reviews I have read, the emphasis on the show was about the statistics. The statistics are both fun and important. But this book is more about Kevin O'Keefe and discovery. The book has buried tidbits about what life is all about. Kevin really took a journey of self awareness and I found many tidbits about life and what is really important in life buried in the pages of this book. One could read a book about Buddhism and have these points brought across to them. Or they can read this readable book with fun facts that we all know are part of our lives, and learn about ourselves and life along the way. The purpose of this discovery is uncovered by one of the individuals in the book. Most readers will figure this out before this section anyway. And where the book ends makes perfectly logical sense based on who wrote the book. One might call it poetic justice and be careful what you put on a T-shirt. Besides which, I found my self penciling in numbers that depicted my life in the margins near the numbers and values Kevin used to define the average American. I did not fit his definition to well, living most of my adult life 300+ miles from home and eating lots of chunky peanut butter. Thus, I weigh about 10 pounds over the average limit. I would suggest you buy the book and sharpen your pencil and have a go at it and discover yourself.

In The Average American author Kevin O'Keefe chronicles his attempt to discover the archetypical resident of the United States, that one man or woman whose quantifiable attributes, preferences, and living conditions are as close to "normal" as possible (normal as determined by the 2000 census and a number of other polls and reports). O'Keefe arrived at a list of 140 criteria that his Average American had to meet, most of them suggested to him by conversations he had with regular folk while traveling around the country on his quest. In the end, the identity of O'Keefe's quintessential American came as a surprise to him, and makes for a very tidy finish to the book, particularly given O'Keefe's secondary motive in undertaking the project. The author portrays himself in the book as an unduly competitive, unlikable type-A character who's never accepted average performance from himself, who's racked up accomplishments not so much because he enjoyed himself in the doing, but because he needed to be better than everyone else. He suggests that in finding the average American he may find as well something that's been missing in himself. O'Keefe's chronicle is certainly interesting, sprinkled as it is with statistical tidbits which readers will inevitably want to measure themselves against. (The average American falls asleep within seven minutes of going to bed and eats three pounds of peanut butter annually.) And there is a certain frisson in the idea that every American reading the book was, for a short time at least, at the beginning of the project, a candidate for O'Keefe's Everyman. Except.... Except that some of O'Keefe's candidates were more equal than others. Among the criteria he uses to winnow out the un-average Joes are two geographical filters that alone knock much of the country out of consideration. O'Keefe required that his Average American live in the eastern or central time zones and that he or she live no more than 100 miles from the shore. Residents of California, for example, never really had a chance. O'Keefe similarly applies various political criteria to his candidates. The Average American, for example, is required to live in a state that is represented by at least one Democratic senator (as most Americans do). Thus the majority of O'Keefe's sifting of candidates is done by applying to the population criteria that are external to the individual. Whole communities, whole swaths of the country are thrown out on political or geographical grounds. It would have made for a far more interesting project and book if all of O'Keefe's criteria were instead centered on the individual. As it is, it feels as if much of the population was removed from consideration unfairly. Two other small additions would have made for a better book. First, I would have appreciated the inclusion of a series of maps in which areas being removed from consideration were shaded out. And it would have been more fun if O'Keefe's 140 criteria were presented in check

Is it possible to find someone who ranks as the most average person in America? That is the task of the author as he takes the reader across the United States in search of this most average of all people. First he starts at the Census Bureau to discover what qualifies as average. From there the actual search begins. Throughout the book the author narrows his search by expanding his criteria as tries to find this person by finding an average town, a commonly named street, an average religious belief, average marital relationship, etc. He even finds several very interesting relationships such as the average person lives within two miles of a park, three miles of a McDonalds and twenty minutes of a Wal-Mart. This is actually an interesting view into America and the American people and mindset. The Average American makes interesting reading and is a recommended read.

In Kevin O'Keefe's book, we discover an unusal methodology for finding the average American. Using demographic facts and figures, we find through a process of elimination that being average is really only a small percentage of people, which in turn makes them rare and unique. This exercise in exploration shifts your perspective of what average really means, where "ok" suddently means "exceptional". This is most definately a timely book, as Americans struggle to stand out from the rest. This national obsession has lead to many being the same (although they will claim they are alternative). However, maybe being average is EXACTLY how to go about being different. Last, this is a great book if you enjoy character driven and conversation based books. It is an easy read that keeps you moving and keeps it light. I enjoyed every page of it.