Can't We All Just Get Along?
A Slew of Books Offers Guidance On How Best to Treat One Another
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
"If ever there was a topic that seemed doomed to perpetual obsolescence, etiquette is it. The word conjures up dusty tomes of irrelevant injunctions about silverware and fox trots, the hostess descending the marble stairs just as the ambassador and his retinue disembark from their Bentley. Meanwhile, a lament about the decline of manners generally meets with vague agreement, at least as long as it doesn't interfere with our cellphone-jabbering, line-jumping, stroller-bulldozing ways. Good manners are one of those abstractions that everyone is in favor of, in principle . . . if only one weren't in such a hurry this afternoon. ...
... It makes perfect sense -- it's rather cheering, really -- that the etiquette columnist for the Boston Globe is not an imperious WASP but a Midwestern-born converted Jew who has blunt things to say about both Christopher Hitchens and the soi-disant war on Christmas. Robin Abrahams's "Miss Conduct's Mind Over Manners" (Times, $15) is a droll yet emphatic exercise in sturdy common sense, which is all etiquette is, really. Although Abrahams is a little too fond of the latest advances in pop sociology, and providing punchy precis thereof, her book is nonetheless a thoughtful and amusing piece of writing."
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A witty, sophisticated guide to the new principles of modern social behavior, by a psychologist and popular alternative-etiquette-and-ethics guru
This is no rule book about forks and calling cards. As a child, Robin Abrahams was bitterly disappointed when her parents forced her to have a lemonade stand rather than a booth for dispensing advice. In Miss Conduct’s Mind over Manners, Abrahams, now a psychologist and the popular “Miss Conduct” columnist for The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, tackles the perplexing social dilemmas of our time.
Bringing to bear the insights of psychology, Abrahams outlines eight steps to more graceful living that can be applied to uncertain situations—and for handling the inevitable mistakes—involving food, religion, children, pets, health, sex, money, and more.
With humor, compassion, and gusto, Miss Conduct’s Mind over Manners delivers thoughtful and thought-provoking advice for everyone navigating the complex world of modern human interaction.
