BOBOS IN PARADISE: THE NEW UPPER CLASS AND HOW THEY GOT THERE A book review on David Brooks' latest novel. By: Yigal Rifkind David Brooks has written a brilliant work on the new upper class. His book titled Bobo’s in Paradise mocks the upper classe’s commitment to both bourgeois and bohemian values. These people are called Bobos (Bohemian Bourgoisie). To be honest the book is brilliant. He traces the roots of both bohemian culture – the intellectuals who hung out in coffee shops talking about how to revolutionize the world and the, until recently, WASP conservative bourgeoise – the people who bought big houses and yachts in the Hamptons. Now, you have an upper middle class who has mastered the Jarvis Cocker trick of managing to look both nerdily old fashioned and trendy at the same time. They hang out in coffee shops and buy cool lofts in the artists district with the brick of a few walls exposed: not because they can’t afford a home renovator, on their six digit salary, but because they think it looks natural. They avoid ostentatious items like gold watches and yachts but love anything that vaguely smells of utility; for example buying a $15, 000 platinum watch, water resistant to 20, 000 leagues under the sea. They are the after shock of the sixties radicals, having made money and wanting to distance themselves from the ostentatious, natural resource sucking 80’s. They are still hippies at heart. But, unfortunately, they are hippies that buy that gas guzzling Land Rovers because they see themselves as being at one with nature. Brooks is an incredibly gifted writer and some parts of the book are laugh-out- loud funny. His advice on how to write a bestseller through selection of title’s is especially humorous. Calling Thomas Cahill’s recent book, “ethnic brown-nosing” and suggesting titles like Irish People are wonderful: But English People Suck, are the easiest way to assure yourself an audience. In past generations, bohemians railed against the bourgeoisie because they were married to their jobs; they were Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman. The counterculture radicals hated big business jobs because these jobs sucked the life out of you. There you became a cog in the huge business process. Big business were dry and boring and they sucked the individuality out of you. However, “Bobo culture” has fused these concerns and now big businesses search for “free thinking radicals”. In McKinzie and Co. a consulting firm, their Toronto office has a pool table and free beer on tap. The result is that many workers are happy to work weekends (free beer, who wouldn’t?). They see their jobs as fun and therefore the income they earn is incidental. Therefore, their jobs become a form of self-actualization, which in turn just makes them work harder. The only problem with the book is his ending. The crux of the book is the an analysis of Bobo’s in relation to consumerism and their attitudes to business, intellectual pursuits, pleasure and religion. But in his last few pages he begins to sound didactic, telling his readers that Bobo’s have so much more “potential” and that they should move above complacency to accomplish great things. That, however, is the books only, and I repeat, only flaw. For the future Timberlane wearing six digit earning young professional, this book is a must read.