On Paradise Drive - by David Brooks (Paperback)

About the Book

Americans are the inheritors of a sense of limitless possibilities raised to think in the future tense. The author takes a serious and comic look at this future-mindedness that shapes personalities and underlies beliefs.

Book Synopsis

Take a look at Americans in their natural habitat: guys shopping for barbecue grills, doing that special walk men do when in the presence of lumber; superefficient soccer Ubermoms who chair school auctions, organize PTAs, and weigh less than their kids; and suburban chain restaurants, which if they merged would be called Chili's Olive Garden Hard Rock Outback Cantina. Are we as shallow as we look? Many around the world see us as the great bimbos. Sure, Americans work hard and are energetic, but that is because we are money-hungry and don't know how to relax.
But if you probe deeper, you find that we behave the way we do because we live under the spell of paradise. We are the inheritors of a sense of limitless possibilities, raised to think in the future tense and to strive toward the happiness we naturally accept.
On Paradise Drive, at once serious and comic, describes this distinct American future-mindedness that shapes our personalities and underlies our beliefs.

Review Quotes

"A worthy sequel to Bobos....Brooks is a master satirist."
-- The New York Observer

"Brooks is a clever and insightful inspector of the American scene....His earlier book, Bobos in Paradise, was a well-deserved bestseller. On Paradise Drive is just as funny and perceptive."
-- The Wall Street Journal

"Brooks makes meaning...out of a seemingly unrelated but vastly entertaining assemblage of images of American life."
-- The New York Times

"Delectable....Brooks' style is so easygoing and his observations so wicked and astute that you won't be able to stop reading. Or laughing."
-- Entertainment Weekly

About the Author

David Brooks writes a biweekly opinion column for The New York Times and appears regularly on PBS NewsHour and NPR's All Things Considered. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.