Bobos in Paradise, a deft, insightful meditation on "the new upper class," cheerfully meets the definition of snack food for thought. Brooks's premise is simple: the anti-establishment Bohemian culture of the 1960s has merged with the work-a-day world of the bourgeois -- hence, the "bobo." Hilarity ensues as this new breed of educated elite runs rampant through the corridors of American culture, leaving a trail of upscale coffeehouses in their wake. Brooks backs up his claims with compelling, if sometimes fanciful scenes from American life, while also offering a quick survey of pop-cult crit from the past half century, from William Whyte's The Organization Man to Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Harold Check