Don't Get Too Comfortable

In David Rakoff's "Don't Get Too Comfortable," readers are taken on a "bitingly funny grand tour of our culture of excess." With his signature wit and keen observational eye, Rakoff mercilessly skewers the pervasive greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity that define modern society. From the elegant, dying breed of the Concorde's last flights to the decidedly less refined ambiance of Hooters Air, and from serving as a cabana boy in South Beach to observing a soft-core video shoot on a private Belizean island, Rakoff's essays expose the absurdities of our hyper-consumerist and narcissistic age. He masterfully illustrates how our once healthy self-regard has metastasized into an "obliterating narcissism," and how relentless "getting and spending" have been elevated to moral virtues. Blending Wildean satire with a heartfelt plea for basic human decency, Rakoff argues that far from residing in a consumerist paradise, we are trapped in a "special circle of gilded-age hell." This collection is a brilliant, incisive, and often hilarious critique of contemporary American culture.