The tale of Maureen Langan's 1970's upbringing in New Jersey, in which her Irish mother and Bronx-born father, a New York City sanitation worker, told her to work hard, get educated and life would reward her. But is this true? How do you tell a girl to read and write when Kim Kardashian is getting the book deals, when making a sex tape is more valued than knowing the proper use of semicolons, when oiling up your ass leads to fame and fortune? Who is to blame? Is it our parents' fault? America's fault? Yes and yes.