This is a collection of nonliterary essays, such as vignettes of life in the Big Apple in the Jazz Age and reviews of concerts, art exhibitions, movies and Ziegfield Follies' productions.
In 1932, the worst year of the Depression, Wilson traveled around the US as a reporter. So this collection is comprised mainly of essays that came out of that journey. Critic Alfred Kazin argued that Wilson "is not a reporter but a literary artist driven by the historical imagination - like Henry Adams and Carlyle."
It is a portrait of a time when "the whole structure of American society seemed actually to be going to pieces."
Who would get into this book: readers interested in the Jazz Age, readers into Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, or those who want to know about the childhoods of members of the Greatest Generation. Wilson's unapologetic and frank style is for people nostalgic for columnists like H.L. Mencken who would bluntly describe regions of the US as "backward." For instance, for people who know Dearborn and FoMoCo, there is a brutal take-down of Henry Ford and his minions like Sorenson.
I read this a few years ago--pre-blogging. I thought it was pretty good as well. Good look at the period.
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