Excellent profiles of ordinary people--and a few famous ones who don't seem to fit into this book at all. The book is clearly a collection of New Yorker pieces, and no attempt has been made to fit them into a narrative whole or social argument--this is the one serious weakness in what otherwise is a fine, revealing, and ultimately disheartening look at contemporary America. ( )

This book had a particular narrative style that doesn't work well for me. The author told the personal stories of multiple people who have been living through the "unwinding" of American culture. The stories were well told. Packer has a gift for bringing people and places to life. However, he clearly had a point to make, but he wouldn't just come out and say it. It was biographies with an agenda, and he never said what the agenda was. The other thing that bugged me was that the book just ended when it got to the present day. There was no conclusion, no closure. Between these two factors, I came away from the book unsatisfied.

It wouldn't have taken much to dramatically change my opinion. The exact same book with an epilogue in the style of the prologue would have been enough to round of the book and the still-ongoing-in-real-life stories of the highlighted individuals.

The prologue was the one part of this book that I loved without reserve. It managed to convey the essence of the story of the past 40 years in just a few pages. It's worth reading, even if you read nothing else. (And, I suspect that, conveniently, the Amazon Kindle preview chapter would include it without having to purchase the whole thing.) ( )

One of the best books I’ve read this decade. Feb, 2022 ( )

This is the best book I have read this year. ( )

Packer looks at the changing landscape of America through the eyes and voice of those deeply involved in it. ( )