Richistan by Robert Frank
Published this past June from Random House, Richistan by Robert Frank is a book about the intricate workings of upper-class society in the United States.
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through “Richistan†entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own “arborists.†They’re also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
Richistan is like the best travel writing, full of colorful and interesting stories providing insights into exotic locales. Robert Frank has been loitering on the docks of yacht marinas, pestering his way into charity balls, and schmoozing with real estate agents selling mega-houses to capture the story of the twenty-first century’s nouveau riche.“My boat is bigger than your boat.†Only in Richistan would a 100-foot-boat be considered a dinghy. Personal pleasure craft have started to rival navy destroyers in size and speed. Richistan is also a place where friends make fun of those misers who buy the new girlfriend a mere Mercedes SLK.
The influence of Richistan and the Richistanis extends well beyond the almost ten million households that make up its population, as the nonstop quest for status and an insatiable demand for luxury goods reshapes the entire American economy.
When Robert Frank’s book was released on June 5, 2007, he wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal answering two big questions that many people had about the book: the odd title and basically, why the book is about anything new.
As a former foreign correspondent, I decided to cover Richistan just as I would cover another country. I wouldn’t judge the rich as heroes or villains, any more than I would judge Indonesians when covering Indonesia. My job would simply be to tell the reader what their world is like and what’s happening there.
This sounds like it’d be a fun book to read with some very amusing stories of the wealthy. I just added this to my list of books to read in the future.
Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich is $24.95 from Random House or about $16 from Amazon.com.
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