Definitely a book that’s passed through political correctness and come out the other side.

There seem to be a couple of issues drawing Rod Liddle’s ire. The first is the narcissism of modern society, which he skewers mercilessly. The second is the emergence of a super-class of highly advantaged upper-middle-class families who are radically better able to access society’s goods than others. Their advantages come from multiple sources – public schooling, living in better areas, social networks that can help access, and so forth – but also (Liddle claims) from a more surprising source: changes to the law that seem egalitarian but work to reinforce privilege.

Is super-class privilege now so entrenched as to be immovable? If you’re looking for answers to this, or even some vague suggestions, you won’t find them. But as a source of dinner-party factoids and telling phrases, this is a winner. People “who have had their struggles too” will definitely be part of my vocabulary from now on.

4/5. Finished Monday 13 July, 2015.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)