A collection of essays exploring American oligarchy and the culture of excess, providing a look at how the ultrarich shape—and sometimes warp—our social and political landscape.
Amusing and enraging ... The best essays revel in the sheer ludicrousness of extreme wealth ... While adding ample historical context (the first 'trusts' originated as a tax dodge for Crusaders), this succeeds most of all as an exposé of the grotesque excesses of the elite.
There is something unconvincing about turning these pieces into a topical anthology ... This feeling deepens when you realize that some of the book’s sermonizing material about how Osnos’s hometown lost its Yankee propriety also appeared in his opprobrium-rich 2021 book Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury ...
The Haves and Have-Yachts is journalistic: descriptive, not prescriptive. It’s a prestige romp in the aloof mode of The New Yorker —a style that keeps passions at a minimum ... Memorable.
