(2004-06-09) Kinsley Vs Brooks

Michael Kinsley on David Brooks' new book On Paradise Drive ISBN:0743227387 - He starts by slicing and dicing the American population into categories and subcategories, each with its own ValUes and Habit-s and sartorial preferences. Then he turns around and puts us all back together again, reinterpreting his previous examples of our differences as evidence of our essential similarity. It's a bravura performance and always entertaining, if not always convincing. The Brooks sociological method has four components: fearless generalizing, clever coinage, jokes and shopping lists... At the very least, Brooks does not let the sociology get in the way of the shtick, and he wields a mean shoehorn when he needs the theory to fit the joke.