Look Ma, I Am Kool — And Other Casuals (1977) — Burton Bernstein (Prentice Hall)

ISBN: 0135405750 • Condition: Good • Sold by Crappy Old Books™

Here comes Burton Bernstein, strolling through the seventies in a corduroy blazer, taking notes on how we chase cool with the urgency of a cat after a laser pointer. Look Ma, I Am Kool is a bouquet of comic “casuals”—those nimble, satirical sketches that wink at everyday life until it confesses. The subject is the national pastime of trying too hard: the social contortions, conversational acrobatics, and miracle diets of the personality.

Bernstein’s pieces have the polished mischief of a practiced observer: people who brag modestly, parties where the hors d’oeuvres are networking opportunities in disguise, and trend-chasers who treat lifestyle as a contact sport. He has a gift for the micro-embarrassment—the handshake that turns into a finger-hold, the laugh that arrives a paragraph late, the moment you realize your outfit is from the wrong subculture by a decade and a half. The result is a social X-ray of the era that feels suspiciously modern; the names change, the hustle doesn’t.

Inside you’ll find dispatches from cocktail hours that last longer than administrations, from apartments so curated they need docents, from friendships maintained by calendar reminders and mutual fascination with new stationery. Bernstein writes like the sly friend who keeps you honest: affectionate, needling, and never dull. He understands that cool is a moving target with terrible aim, that manners are a negotiated truce, and that the funniest people are the ones who let their sentences sit down when they’re tired.

This copy is Good, by the benevolent standards of Crappy Old Books™—gently handled, structurally sound, and radiating that warm, archival glow known as “vintage competence.” Expect a dignified spine crease (experience badge), a few foxing freckles (documented charm), and pages that turn with the soft authority of a well-timed aside. The cover has exactly the right amount of shelf swagger: it looks good leaning, which is frankly the coolest pose for a paperback.

Read it if you enjoy your satire with clean edges and sly aftershocks, your cultural criticism disguised as comedy, and your life advice slipped between the lines. Keep it if you’ve ever practiced a story in your head on the way to a party and then told a different one because the room’s temperature changed. File under: Status Anxiety (Humorous), Self-Improvement for the Unimprovable, Anthropology of the Cocktail Napkin.

Carry it in public. When someone asks if it’s any good, say, “It made me cooler by admitting I’m not,” and watch them nod like you’ve revealed a secret handshake.

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