Brooks effectively interweaves history, science, statistics and instinctual behavioral patterns into a fictional treatment that reiterates his belief in "the way unconscious affections and aversions shape daily life. He employs a novelistic narrative device in his intricate analysis of two upwardly mobile, likeminded individuals. The fictional couple's initial meeting spurs the author to personify the dynamics of attraction via their gender-specific "primitive passions" ("Rob was looking at cleavage, Julia was looking for signs of trustworthiness"), primal scents and cues that would anticipate a lifelong romance. "Aided by chemistry and carried along by feeling," Rob and Julia troubleshoot cohabitation blunders, carnal urges and the birth of son Harold, who, together with his wife-to-be Erica (introduced chapters later), ultimately becomes the focus of the author's behavioral paradigm. Harold's mental development proceeds from kindergarten to high school via cliques, phases and a taboo student-teacher crush. The author expands his group with Erica, an ambitious, ethnically diverse girl raised in a poor public housing project. She excels at a challenging educational platform in her youth and achieves success as a business consultant by cultivating ideas and having Harold develop them for real-world application. Their evolution as husband and wife and consummate professionals is not, however, without a fair share of stumbles
From the influential and hugely popular "New York Times" columnist and bestselling author of "Bobos in Paradise" comes a landmark exploration of how human beings and communities succeed.
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