Commuter book review: The Privileges by Jonathan Dee

Know those people who succeed at everything without even trying?

Perfect education, perfect jobs, lust-worthy real estate, lust-worthy sex life and impeccable health and fitness habits. That's our protagonists - the couple the advertising world would deem "a lucrative demographic."

Perfect kids? Well, not really - but there has to be some fodder for the last 2/3 of this book.

In most books, these perfect protagonists would get a come-uppance at some point. The fortune would fade, Madow-style. Illness would strike, showing that filthy lucre ain't everything. There'd be guilty rending of garments, bitter clanking of gin glasses, deep unhappiness beneath the Brooks Brothers tweed.

But none of that really happens here. The protagonists remain teflon and untainted. Sort of like in real life.

If you haven't gotten enough "rich will inherit the earth," with the non-fiction Goldman Sachs chronicles, go nuts with The Privileges. If this is not your thing, read at least the first chapter - a dead-on portrayal of the sweaty, awkward, drunken summer wedding everyone's attended at least once in life.