Article Preview
On Paradise Drive by David Brooks
- Abstract
Comedy of Manners On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (and Always Have) In the Future Tense by David Brooks
Simon & Schuster. 285 pp. $25.00
Reviewed by Dan Seligman
David Brooks appears to betwo different people. One is an earnest fellow who writes a semi-weekly column for the New York Times and appears regularly on public television’s NewsHour. In both venues, his political judgments proclaim him to be informed, reasonable, and conservative-but-not-too-conservative (as evidenced in his recent resounding cheers for gay marriage and lots more Mexican immigration).
The other David Brooks—the one on display in this book—is something of a joker. He calls himself a “comic sociologist,” and this implausible label seems about right. It explains the book’s considerable strengths, and may also have something to do with its weaknesses.
About the Author
Dan Seligman is a contributing editor of Forbes.
This article is available for purchase to subscribers and for individual purchase
Subscriber Sign In
Not A Subscriber?
