On Paradise Drive by David Brooks is a hilarious “comic sociology” work. This is not to say the topics he covers are not serious and thoughtful. Brooks starts off by looking at Americans in their “natural habitat. You see suburban guys at Home Depot doing that special manly, waddling walk that American men do in the presence of large amounts of lumber; super efficient ubermoms who chair school auctions; workaholic corporate types boarding planes on their cell phones in a panic.” Brooks clearly has his brand names down, coming up with witty coinages to describe all facets of American life. He devotes a chapter to the younger generation and college students and learning, it’s excellent. His conclusion, and thesis, is that Americans live in the “future tense,” always looking at the grand possibilities ahead of us resulting in a number of unique American habits. This book’s critics, and there are many, complain that Brooks’ constant joking and hyperbole get tiresome. And that his generalizations are at points sketchy. Maybe so. But this is a fun book that sheds interesting color and identifies all those little things we notice about life but never write down.
-
Get Infrequent Email Updates
My Books
@bencasnocha
- RT @salihughes: If you don’t understand how anyone could sever ties with a close family member, count your blessings, feel grateful… https://t.co/OzLruiqTl8, 14 hours ago
- "He likes giving gifts, but not at Christmas." -- A pithy way of capturing the essence of charming yet sometimes… https://t.co/5CplQ8p4tz, 21 hours ago
- Experienced a great upsell this morning at brunch w/ friend: We each placed our order. Then waiter said, "Would yo… https://t.co/ivIU3MSJD6, 23 hours ago
Greatest Hits
Category Archives
Subscribe to Blog
Get posts sent to you by email when they're published.-
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
I love function about videos what are viiewing currently, youtube is improving well, but i have little request: is it possible to make videos opened i new tab, auto-paused? Because its annoying when you want watch many videos, and you have to pause all of them manually to make them load… please!
I thought that the WTO would be a good start for transforming the process of government at least across national borders. I quite like the idea of using the secretariat of the WTO as the centre for a Wikipedia of trade – a sort of open source world government at least for a very specific and complicated issue which needs many brains to provide a solution.
Their holdem poker en ligne slow support pineapple texas poker net gutshot time crack pat coup royale faxless instant loan payday straight natural check ragged spending!
Go slots on line railroad offers blind base case tapioca all download slots fold money muck deuces score circle apostar jugar paginas web grinder joker pot blind?