Pretty much what you'd expect from one of the foremost gossip columnists and chronicler (as well as participant) in cafe society. Beebe makes no bones about being wholly in favour of the rich and notorious that he describes in the book, but it's done in his usual tongue-in-cheek manner. Certain vocabulary words (faubourg, refulgent) appear regularly. The only mark against the book is that it is a bit of recycling of some of his other work. This book came out in the year of his death, and might have been planned to capitalize on that. I doubt he would have had an issue with that. ( )

A collection of how the absurdly wealthy lived and partied. This is entertaining, light reading. It is an excellent book for a plane trip, good pace and funny. It is sort of a posthumous "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". ( )