From Publishers Weekly
For readers who are feeling glum about America and its place in the world, or those who despairingly look at our culture's cookie cutter, strip mall consumerism and flash-bang glitter, Brooks (
Bobos in Paradise) offers a balm with his latest pseudo-sociological treatise. More a way to look at what he sees as America's problems (e.g., our thirst for enormous gas guzzlers and super-sized soft drinks) with optimism than a series of suggestions of how to fix them, this book by the
New York Times op-ed columnist tells readers it's okay to consume, consume, consume-so long as they look toward the future while doing so. At times playful and sarcastic (though less funny than intended), the book jumps from statistical analysis to cultural observation to defense of Bush's foreign policy, all without much of a mooring in essential context or factual citation. This is deceptive optimism; one long essay insisting our society's problems are not so big, provided we talk about them in the right way. While engagingly written and insightful at points, Brooks's affirmation is unlikely to resound with anyone outside the conservative choir, and even less likely to spark change-or even a desire for change. Still, it's nice to feel loved-if not by the rest of the world, than at least by this author.
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Brooks, whose
Bobos in Paradise (2001) focused on America's upper class, continues his offbeat examination of modern culture by examining the middle class. Life in the middle isn't what it used to be, Brooks reports. Whereas the word
suburb once conjured up images of bland homogeneity, it now means "lesbian dentists, Iranian McMansions, Korean megachurches, nuclear-free-zone subdevelopments, Orthodox shtetls with Hasidic families walking past strip malls on their way to Saturday-morning shul." Where we live, Brooks says, is no longer our destination; it's a "dot on the flowing plane of multidirectional movement." Today's middle class is constantly in motion, always looking forward, planning its future. As a satiric social commentator, Brooks is always looking for the humorous anomaly--there are more than 600 certified pet chiropractors in the U.S.--but along with exposing cultural absurdities, he offers acute observations on middle-class life, and he frequently takes us in previously unexplored philosophical directions. One way or the other, this book will give readers plenty of new things to think about.
David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
