“Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right” Thomas Frank, 225 pages, Metropolitan Books, $25
This is a showcase example of the problems that can be created by the long lead time involved in publishing a topical book in an age when news is instantaneous, and there is 2 4/7, wall-to-wall coverage of hot-button issues. Frank’s thesis is that in the wake of the fiscal calamities of 2008 — at a time when unemployment remains high, when many ordinary people are reeling from the recession, and you might expect anger at the deregulatory policies that enabled banks to run amok — conservatives have managed a surreal comeback. The Tea Party has become a vocal force, the Republicans surged to capture the House in the 2010 midterms, and the right, in his view, has doubled down on the dream of a “laissez-faire utopia.” In explicating this hypothesis, Frank makes only passing mention of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began protests in September, apparently too late to get any real attention in this book. Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
