Rating: 
Summary: Andy Rooney in disguise
Review: This review of today's culture seems like a regurgitation of thoughts from two of my least favorite television personalities - Andy Rooney and P.J. O'Rourke. I could only get through about 250 pages of the author's commentary on today's retail demographics. While the author has certainly done his fair share of research, it doesn't help this dry and un-funny view of today's society. I would much rather be subjected to Andy Rooney's 2 minute diatribes on 60 Minutes for a lifetime than to have to read this book again
Rating: 
Summary: Trenchant and Fun
Review: Having enjoyed Fussel's Class immensely, and as an armchair pop sociologist, I looked forward to reading Brook's work. While it is true that the book's insights are shallow in places, and the writing weak in others, Bobos is on to something. Being a "gen x'er" in pop sociological terms, I am no fan of boomer apologia, however I think that Brook's insights are accurate and quite penetrating. Certainly, I think he captures the zeitgeist of the times. I found myself nodding along with much of what he wrote and laughing out loud in a knowing way. Indeed, I recognized myself throughout. Bobos in Paradise delves into our collective unconscious in a fun and interesting way. It's not de Tocqueville, but so what? It's still good reading.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Essay in Comic Sociology.
Review: This book explains the contradictions of the new "upper class", which Brooks named Bobos, short for bourgeois bohemians and shows how they have combined the ethos of the eighties with the idealism of the sixties. The author displays a great sense of humor when he describes today's executive as having gone from SDS to CEO and from LSD to IPO. A neoconservative, Brooks celebrates this transformation and cites Cesar Grana's 1964 work, Bohemian versus Bourgeois, which describes the intellectuals' contempt for bourgeois culture in early 19th Century France. You may recall that Thorstein Veblen in his book, Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899, also used the satirical concept of conspicuous consumption to explain why people acquire goods for their status rather than for their utility. Since then, other writers have tried to do the same. However, Brooks, who is obviously one of them, is ambivalent about the Bobos' behavior and it is left for the reader to decide whether the Bobos are enlightened revolutionaries or revolutionaries who have sold out. It is ironic that having praised the virtues of Bobos' lifestyles, at the end Brooks seems to be afraid that "we are threatened with a new age of complacency". Are the Bobos exhausted already or are they shallow yuppies? Nevertheless, this book is indeed comic sociology worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, but not too profound
Review: Brooks starts out with a thoughtful introduction, explaining how social power and the counterculture have converged and what the strange product of this mingling has been. He goes on to elaborate at excessive length, but with hilarious examples of upper-middle-class snobbery. Buy the book, read the introduction, and then skim the rest.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Idea
Review: Bobos in Paradise is an interesting book with an interesting thesis. Brooks posits that there is anew class of cultural elite, the bourgeois bohemians, or "BOBOS" virtually running the US today. Brooks traces their development and explains various aspects of what a bobo is, from political and religious views to work ethic and consumer patterns. Brooks has a lot of interesting points that I think would make for an lively discussion. I don't think everyone will agree with all he says (too much generalization), but that just makes the book more interesting. Brooks thankfully never takes his subject too seriously and gently pokes fun at the ridiculousness of these people. If you are looking for a heavy duty sociology tome, this is not the book. If, however, you want something on the lighter side, that is easy to read and that will give you a few interesting things to say at your next cocktail party, this is the book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: An Instant Classic of our Life and Times
Review: I predict that this will be THE book that cultural historians 50 years from now will be using when trying to explain the heady days of Clinton/Lewinsky, Microsoft/Starbucks, and REI/SUV. This book informed me and made me laugh. I did not want to finish this book! His observations are right on, as is his use of history to explain the present day. This book is a perfect blend of modern sociology and irony. Go get this book now - you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A self-portrait that bites
Review: This witty book-- challenging in its compilation of observations about our daily lives, shallow in that it ignores so much of modern America -- frequently made me cringe. I easily recognized myself (late forties, African American, PhD, Oberlin... you get the idea) in every chapter and loved the way the author crafted the language to present a portrait at once incisive, critical, but affectionate. We Baby Boomers have much to be grateful for, much to be held accountable for, but nothing to apologize for. In every latte-laced chapter, Brooks probes more deftly into turn-of-the-century U.S. culture and mores and does not take a wrong turn. This is an easy read, an adventurous excercise, and a sparklingly clear mirror held up to our generation.
Rating:
Summary: Read the dust cover and save time.
Review: After seeing the author, David Brooks, on PBS's The News Hour, and Life and Times, I got the impression that Bobo's would be more comedy than social commentary. Wrong. The minimal humor in this book can be gleaned by reading the dust cover. Sociologists may like it, but don't buy it for the humor alone.
Rating:
Summary: More Bou than Bo
Review: David Brooks is a born lickspittle. He clearly enjoys flirting with his target audience, teasing them just enough to get their attention, then flattering them for pages. It's not very well done--even his title, the abbreviation "Bobo," makes you wince, because the "bo" in "bourgeois" isn't pronounced like the "bo" in "bohemian." The mismatch is symptomatic: Brooks' readers are far more bourgeois than they are bohemian. They are the same world-weary Eastern crowd to which the New Yorker has pandered lo, these many decades, and Brooks feeds them the same adoring banter they've come to expect. But what vile taste they and their little evangelist reveal! How horrible these little lives of furniture-pedantry! Two careers and a high-strung child who'll acquire new affectations every year, til she winds up spending her trust fund on therapy--that's Paradise? What a wretched paradise! No wonder they need this groveller to tell them how happy they are, how wonderful, for two hundred craven pages!
Rating: 
Summary: The Age of Flexidoxy....
Review: While reading Brooks new book "Bobos in Paradise" I looked up several passages in "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville. Sure enough, old Alex had already pointed out some of the observations Brooks makes, and even cites near the end of his book --"is the danger that, amid all the constant trivial preoccupations of private life, ambition may lose both its force and its greatness, that human passions may grow gentler and at the same time baser, with the result that the progress of the body social may become daily quieter and less aspiring." Brooks may live in DC but it is obvious he doesn't have my commute with some very ambitious and non-gentle drivers. "Democracy" contains another passage--Brooks does not cite--having to do with the constant striving of Americans for the almighty dollar. This image is picked up by Fitzgerald in "The Great Gatsby" where the green light at the end of Daisy's dock glows and recedes just out of Gatsby's reach. I suppose I might fall into Brook's definition of BOBO, except that I am a bit older than his elite group, who seem to be first wave baby boomers. (Maybe he should have called them BABOs.) And, I don't drink latte anymore, just tea (really good tea of course), and I drive a 12-year old Toyota that gets really good gas mileage (my husband's car is older). Although my husband (now a counselor and retired from a large corporation) and I fall into the BOBO income group, we live in what the Claritas corporation calls a "Bohemian" neighborhood (42 ethnic groups in the local school and very Democratic). I'm a "sort of" SID (one of my publications is cited on the front page of the WP this date) but I gave up the rubber-chicken circuit some years ago and I left a Fortune 500 company to work for a more "worthy" organization. We compost EVERYTHING organic (great earthworms), don't grow grass--only herbs and local flora plus a rose bush or two--have a NWF backyard bird approved yard. We shop at Land's End for jeans and chinos which we wear to work, and read lots of books. We don't ski, don't own a boat, and don't eat very much meat(chicken & fish) thus forgoing gourmet cooking and the need for an "over-the-top" kitchen). BOBOS live in 1.5 million houses and drive SUVs! Give me a break, these guys are NOT bohemian, they are wannabees. Brooks has written a "pop" sociology book--"The Status Seekers" come to mind. It's exactly the sort of book that attracts the marketing class as this book will. One of my professors (I am a French-Marxist sociologist--trained at a state university--but of course) pointed out 20 years ago that we live in the "Age of McDonaldization." U.S.A. Today is "newsMcnuggets", Starbucks is "coffeeMcNuggets", and Smith and Hawkins is "EcoMcnuggets." As soon as any new idea arises it is quickly scoffed up by the marketing types and developed into a market-worthy items sold in shops from sea to shining sea (institutionalized), and the result is a flawed abstraction of the original. What amazes me is how rapidly the market devolves an idea into various products to meet various market niches. In the 1960s we burned sandlewood incense for the heck of it. I don't even know why I did it except my friends were doing it and other Zen things, and it seemed radical at the time (I wasn't too daring). Today, you can find sandlewood scent in everything from candles at the boutique, deodorant for the bathroom, and air freshners in taxis. Brooks fails to take on a really big issue--one that would give his "fluffy" book some weight. Who the heck is buying all that cocaine and heroin. Well, I have an idea, and I know for a fact that any number of those SUV drivers I encounter on the road are either on the stuff or something equally intoxicating. I don't believe one can be both bohemian and bourgeois. This is the myth those who have abandoned their "values" tell themselves to salve their own conscience. You cannot drive an SUV and call yourself an environmentalist.
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