Crazy-perceptive. Professor Fussell's effort here is without peer in the general category of books about the American class system (yes, it exists). His wit and very clean writing style keeps you cackling through revelation after revelation about things you know but care not to admit to yourself.
I'd like to read this updated for the 21st century because many of the observations didn't resonate with me, and I think the specificity of his descriptions have historically contributed a lot to his cogency.
I picked this up after reading some reviews on Amazon, and found it a very entertaining read. The book is twenty years out of date now, but many of the observations still ring true. As the author says, talking about class (or even admitting there is such a thing) is practically taboo in America, yet the social levels are still there as much as in any other country. He spends most of the book mercilessly skewering each of the classes in turn. Sometimes he seems rather tongue-in-cheek but at other times just very condescending; it's hard to tell exactly which. It's a shame the book hasn't been updated since the 80s; it would be fascinating to see how it changed with the increase of modern technology, cellphones, and so on. Still, an amusing and interesting book despite its limitations and outdatedness; and impossible to read without constantly considering which of …
I picked this up after reading some reviews on Amazon, and found it a very entertaining read. The book is twenty years out of date now, but many of the observations still ring true. As the author says, talking about class (or even admitting there is such a thing) is practically taboo in America, yet the social levels are still there as much as in any other country. He spends most of the book mercilessly skewering each of the classes in turn. Sometimes he seems rather tongue-in-cheek but at other times just very condescending; it's hard to tell exactly which. It's a shame the book hasn't been updated since the 80s; it would be fascinating to see how it changed with the increase of modern technology, cellphones, and so on. Still, an amusing and interesting book despite its limitations and outdatedness; and impossible to read without constantly considering which of his defined classes you would fall into. I'll certainly look at people's interior decorating tastes differently from now on, at the least!
