This sort of thing feels vaguely insulting when Brooks is describing the subculture you belong to, but the payoff is that you get to smirk meanly when he's nailing, say, the $6 ice cream cone purchasers of the "Professional Zone," with their debates about "the merits and demerits of Corian countertops" and their streets where "there are so many blue New York Times delivery bags in the driveways ... they are visible from space." The meanness lies in knowing that every American wants to think that his or her lifestyle is a reflection of individual taste, and that the more affluent the person, the more dearly held is the delusion of originality....

This technique only works if it's deadly accurate, and recently Sasha Issenberg of Philadelphia Magazine caused a minor media furor when he was able to demonstrate that some of Brooks' claims about lower-middle-class neighborhoods in his area were wrong.