D. A. Blyler - The Jaded Generation

Blyler is among a new generation of expat writers, which the author labeled The Jaded Generation. Described by the Midwest Book Review as a generation of "thirty-somethings who have fallen through the cracks of parental, academic, and worldly expectations," this group is given voice in Blyler's debut novel, Steffi's Club, set in the subterranean streets of Plzeň, Czech Republic, several years after the Velvet Revolution and the fall of Communism. In a 2003 interview with Dave Reidy, Blyler talked about the role that music played in forming the psychology of this generation born on the cusp of the Baby Boom and X Generations (1964–69):

Music plays a hugely important role in the psychological development of many, if not most, people. This is especially true of thirty-somethings, who in the 1970s were the last generation to grow up listening to music by pressing tiny AM boxes against their ears. These transistor radios were an intimate and almost secretive way for a child to be initiated into the adult world of popular music. And when such songs are characterized by highly sentimental depictions of tragic love affairs and early deaths ("Fire and Rain," "Billy Don't Be a Hero," "Run Joey Run," etc.), and enveloped in catchy, easily remembered lyrics, it has long lasting resonance. In Steffi's Club I tried to intimate this ripple effect on the psyche, especially as it pertains to the main character Daniel Fischer. I'm quite certain that he isn't the only one who memorized all the lyrics to "Seasons in the Sun" as a seven or eight year old in the early 70s and thought that he or she too would die young.