[...] It was hardly surprising that a novel which unequivocally condemned a way of life to which many people had sacrificed their youth and energy was tepidly received; journalists were as much at the mercy of the status-driven conspicuous consumption of the eighties as anyone else and the forth over the book's alleged violence may have concealed a hideous disquiet that the leotards and Agnes B. leggings, the enormous mortgages and obscene restaurant bills were ... just ... not worth it.