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Title: Gossipy, elitist, Manhattan provincialism
Review: Someone like John Berendt, former editor of New York magazine, reminds me of why I left Manhattan, with its small-mided delusional ego-centrism. He's an unskilled writer and thinker, with the soulful depth of a gossip columnist. Pick your favorite town or city, and imagine someone spinning the news-making personalities (University heads, retired CEO's, Mayors, developers, elites and gold-diggers) into a porttrait of your town, coated with a pretense of depth through literary references. You'd be incensed. Most people don't care about the trials of the rich and famous (maybe 10% of the population does, enough to keep books like this successful) -- they care about real stuff, like life, death, happiness, meaningful work, family etc. There's nothing important here. This is not Venice today, and the inhabitants of the city are right to ignore the book.
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