Rating: 
Summary: Mildly interesting but ultimately flawed
Review: One day, the upper middle classes woke up and discovered the bohemians. Enchanted, they did away with the formality of grandmother's parlour and embraced bare wood floorings, ethnic Indian fabrics artistically draped over their sofa, and hung modern art on the walls. They started to travel to interesting places off the beaten track, explored different cuisines, and broke down the interior walls of their houses as to encourage a open floorplan. They started reading radical writers and embracing unconventional notions. Sounds familar? David Brooks would have us believe that these people are his Bobos, a brand new social class that embraced both elements of bohemianism and the old bourgeoise. The people I described are actually the late Victorians/Edwardians at the dawn of the arts and crafts movement at the turn of the century.So, Brooks' argument is largely flawed because what he describes as a new cultural phenomena is just a replaying of history. There's nothing inherently new about his Bobos. That's not to say the book isn't worth reading. It's amusing, in part to observe how much has changed since it came out three years ago. As much as I hate to resort to using the old "post 9/11" cliche, it's true that the world of today after the end of the dotcom boom and after 9/11 (the book came out at the height of the dotcom boom) is a pretty different place. Much of the casualism he describes as invading the corporate world has disappeared and with the collapse of Enron, "creative thinking" in corporate finance has been discredited and the firms are going back to basic and sound economics and practice. And the old WASP world hasn't disappeared-as much as the Times would like us to believe otherwise, it's still going strong in parts of America, notably the South, and even in NYC there are still WASP strongholds. What Brooks is correct on is that WASPS no longer dominate national institutions and are now just one group out of many. I wonder what Brooks would make of the current WASP revival in clothing fashion, with the return of Lacoste to the American market, and the revitalization of Lilly Pulitzer? I will agree on one subject: America has become the ultimate consumerism society, to the extent that virtually everything is a form of consumerism. Even the WASP lifestyle has been condensed and packaged for the broad market a la RL Polo and other clothing label. Is there anything that has not been declared as a certain style?
Rating: 
Summary: Bohemians merged into the bourgeoisie--a clever notion
Review: The author discovered in the college educated that rebel attitudes and social climbing are mixed together. This is a consequence of the information age. The WASP establishment had a service ethic. WASPs were uncomfortable with ambition but had a sense of obligation. Now old society has given away to a sense of accomplishment, a meritocracy. A person's status is calculated by taking his net worth and multiplying it by his antimaterialistic attitudes. There has been a profound cultural shift. Bourgeoisie tastes began in America around 1720. Franklin's writings capture the values of parlor society. Bohemia was born when the French literati reacted to materialism. The bohemian realm was art. In the 1960's the Bohemian subculture turned into a mass movement. A response was formulated by neoconservatives. The Bobo renounces accumulation and embraces cultivation. A capacious kitchen with durable appliances is a sign that you do your own chores. People judge each other on the costliness of their gear. Brooks writes of status inversion. (I think here he misjudges the situation which is simply a matter of styles going in and out of fashion.) Thorstein Veblen wrote of such matters of inverted snobbery in his discussion of conspicuous consumption; in other words, seemingly inconspicuous consumption may also be taken to be conspicuous consumption in some instances. Some of Brooks's descriptions are in actuality triumphs of marketing. Workers in Bobo captialism are creators. Brooks talks about status income disequilibrium suffered by some intellectuals. Millionaires fear that they have achieved success but have not achieved significance. The social role of the intellectual has been transformed. Nowadays Brooks contends there is a great pastiche, a misture of autonomy and community. President Clinton leaves behind a third way approach. Bobos have learned restraint and sobriety. The book includes discourses on countercultural capitalists and Latte Towns. It is funny. The author seems to be, among other things, a well-schooled American Studies person. He is a journalist and television commentator. It would be interesting if he moved to fiction a la Tom Wolfe.
Rating:
Summary: Must read for: who dont understand the People of the 60's
Review: This book is a must read!
It talks about why Bobos will spend $15,000 on one thing but not on another.
Also i am only 24 years old and have always had a hard time understand the generation of my parents...this books did an excellent job of opening my eyes to their view of the world. Also the book does a great job talking about the conflicts between the different societies we have such as the WASP culture, Yuppi, Hippie, BOBO, etc etc etc.
Great book a must read for anyone wanting to go into business and looking to sell to the new rich!
Rating:
Summary: The Meritocracy Won??
Review: If David Brooks, now resident Bush Apologist for the New York Times, is right that the Meritocracy defeated the Aristocracy, why is the ultimate "legacy" George W. Bush now President? The Neocons would like for you to believe that it's all now merit based, but the ultra rich keep getting richer, the inheritance tax is now gone, and House and Senate seats are passed down across generations. Yuppies may have more stuff these days, but real power these days is increasingly in the hands of the few. Interesting thesis, wrong conclusion.
Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious, sad and witty
Review: As the Amazon review states, we all know who the Bobos are. If we don't see them buying or wearing outrageously expensive items, we must listen to them as they blab about buying them. But then, the more I read, I suddenly realize, "Oh my GOd, I am one of them!" Yes, I get my morning latte and have spent hundreds of dollars on kitchen utensils (most recent purchase: deluxe measuring bar that adjusts for any of 15 different quantities). Brooks looks into every aspect of life - religion, politics, sex, pleasure (especially pleasure), work, children, clothes...there is hardly any subject left untouched. Yet, the text was slightly unorganized, seeming to blend the worst aspects of a self-help manual with the shortness of newspaper articles. One must also remember that this was written during the Clinton era of abject greed/prosperity (take your pick depending on political persuasion) that seemed to have no end.
Rating:
Summary: Conflation and Gross Stereotypes
Review: Bobos in Paradise is a work employing such gross stereotypes and historical conflation as to be close to unuseable. Funny, witty, yes. Accurate and up to date, no. He takes Wayne, Pennsylvania as an example of the BoBo paradise and then tells us about mass tastes that are more than a decade old. In order to sound hip he uses pop cult phrases that are just dead wrong or off the mark. For example, he says these Bobo's like "Bruise Colors", actually a phrase primarilly used for young girls "punk" lipstick, blues, greens, red browns, when what he is talking about are the standard Pottery Barn colors. Founding Fathers "went in for clean classical styles, not gaudy baroque ones" as proof of their bourgeois values. Evidently he doesn't know that the Baroque style was The style from about 1690 to 1730 and the Rococo dominated everything from about 1740 to 1790 and, in many places, well beyond. What is this guy talking about? "They were smart but not overly intellectual" WHAT ! Franklin was the intellectual par excellance. That was one of the reasons he was so popular in France. At a dinner for Nobel Prize winners, JFK said that "There has not been so much talent assembled in this room since Jefferson dined alone." People like Franklin, Jeffeson, Madison and many, many others had continual corrspondence with the leading intellectuals all over the globe. Brooks does as badly with the contemporary scene. He makes no clear differentiation between the distinctly different generations that have emerged from the mid century mark. Brooks has a spin, a very self congratulatory spin, he wants to put on his ideologically driven vision the facts be dammed. Read this for what the Neocons are up to and how they want to view the world. These people have always been behind the curve. In the 60's they supported the Vietnam War and refused to support the Civil Rights Movement. They are still stinging from the realization of how wrong they were. Today the "Bobos" are turning to Dean. You won't see that in Brooks until, of course, 20 years or so.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent concept, uneven execution
Review: I am a fan of all kinds of sociological studies and I had been looking forward to reading this ever since it came out. Well it took a while and I have to say that it was not worth the wait. After an excellent and thoroughly intriguing introduction and first chapter, the material seemed to run dry, the book trailed off. In the beginning of the book Books explores the evolution in home decor over time. (Americans go from covering their exposed beams when they are trying to distance themselves from their rough-and-tuble background, to re-exposing them as they try to appear less bourgeois.) He also includes some fascinating details on New York Times wedding announcements over time and how the educational backgrounds of the people mentioned have changed. I thought he was building up to something. However, by the end of the book, the material is less scholarly and more just sloppy observation. Brooks visits some bobo towns like Burlington, Vermont and discusses the titles sold in the local book stores, the kinds of coffee they brew. I lost a sense of what his thesis was about in the first place. The best sociological study I've read this year is "Meeting, Mating and Cheating" all about ... the online dating phenomenon and how it has changed, well, the way people meet and mate. Also very apropos to us baby boomers. Check it out!
Rating:
Summary: Fun to read... to a point.
Review: I saw myself in this book. I now see it everywhere. When driving through an intersection, how many people are NOT clutching cell phones, lattes, or both? I enjoyed the semi-satirical look at my friends and colleagues searching for greater meaning in a formulaic time; however, I found that each chapter droned on and on and on. I recommend reading the first section of each chapter until you get bored and moving on to the next topic. Maybe that's a sadder commentary on the reader than the book but a "Cliff's Notes" approach seems perfect for the bobo set of readers likely to be most amused by this book.
Rating:
Summary: Bohemians merge into bourgeois and vice versa
Review: Mr. Brooks' entertaining book discusses a new phenomenon where the two opposing segments of a society are slowly moving towards one another as to ultimately become indistinguishable. Or put another way, people want to have their cake and eat it too. Traditionally the bourgeois were the career-oriented, money-accumulating yet dull constituents of society. The free-wheeling, starving-artists yet more exciting group was the bohemians. Over the past fifteen years or so, these groups are converging towards some middle ground. Mr. Brooks describes this happening through examples such as the proliferation of certain types of "bobo towns" across America. These quaint towns consist of charming cafes, admirable antique stores and a slew of high-end franchise stores such as Restoration Hardware and Smith & Hawken. Further examples of the bobo culture are stated through their activities, goals, and status symbols. Bohemians no longer want to be starving or poor and Brooks uses Ben & Jerry's and other smaller scale hippie turned well-off corporation as examples. Mr. Brooks' writing style is bemusement toward this change in culture and the book is liberally sprinkled with humor bordering on condescension. This creates an enjoyable and leisurely read as you will find yourself nodding in agreement with what is written.
Rating:
Summary: Don¿t Stop Until You Get Enough
Review: This book is a much needed comic relief especially for all those of you that are described in the book itself. This author missed his true calling, comedy is what he does best. I found the book to be a laugh a minute. Each page brought on laugh out loud outbursts, so many that my wife finally told me to take it into the other room. Sure, the book tried to deliver a social message that focused on some of the darker sides of this new wealthy class, but it was lost on me, as I really did not care. The book was recommend to me as a smart and funny book and that is what it delivered. Ok, so a few of the social criticisms did ring true and a few of his backhanded suggestions are good ideas. My only complaint with the book is that the author, in an attempt to either lend credence to his theories or just make himself look smart, included at the start of every chapter a run down of the most popular social commentary books written over the past 150 years as it related it the particular chapter. I kept thinking, so what, get on with the comedy. I also found the chapter that dealt with religion to be a bit dry and not as sharp as the rest of the book. Almost as if the author had a guest writer do the chapter. Overall the book is a laugh riot which is just plain fun to read. If you are really looking for social commentary then it may be helpful.
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