But whatever—review or not review—I’m 1000 percent positive Sandra’s kid never went to the private school, both from reading the book and from conversations with her, several years ago, when she’d just started her daughter in public school.

I understand not feeling terribly amused by the school situation. It’s too dire to be amusing. (On the other hand, we must laugh in dark times, no?) But…check out the book and look for yourself. Even if you just stand in the book store and read a little without plunking down the whatever it costs for hardbacks these days.

Sandra’s waa-a-ay over the private school thing, I promise.

(Although when her kid hits middle school, temptation may rear its ugly head again. Who knows?)

I’m afraid I’m a little too close to the trenches to have the distance of irony from the subject matter — it would be like reading a satire about hospitals after you’ve had a few disastrous brushes with surgery, and are still battling the system.

However I have read excerpts here and there and heard Sandra speak — she sounds awfully conflicted between her liberal views, her desire for the social benefits of the tony school (which she still seems to yearn for) and her genuine desire to be a voice for “the people of the crabgrass schools.” Kind of like her own life, with a “dumpster-diving eccentric Chinese immigrant father” who was always badly dressed, amidst the academic elite of Caltech. All of that I can totally relate to, by the way.

I think you misunderstood: Sandra got her kid into the bigtime expensive school (because she was suddenly considered a writer/celebrity mother, which gave her the magic Get-Into-School card), but ended up not sending her daughter there because Sandra and her husband couldn’t afford it. So then she embarked about the….um…adventure that eventually led her to send her daughter to the public school closest to her—and, in so doing, became a flaming convert to public education.

That change in attitude is, in large part, what the book is about. Sandra makes fun of herself for her original belief that she had to, had to, had to send her kids to a private school.

Now Sandra is entirely committed—both money and mouth—to promoting and improving public education. She is resolutely not one of those liberals who think they should be able to dictate what the public schools ought to do, but wouldn’t dream of sending her own kids there.

She’s one of the good guys.

I’m only part way through the book, but it’s a lot of fun to read. I suspect you’d enjoy it.

Kind of puts a different spin on things: more of the usual “I’ll be a flaming liberal advocating for the blessings of diversity if I have no choice, but soon as I do, I’m out of here like the rest of my fellow write-a-check and hide behind gates liberals.” When they’re really rich or just wanna-be-seen, they attend $28,000 plate fundraisers for Obama and make sure they’re never within a stone’s throw of actually being among the children of the illegal immigrants whose right to come here they advocate for so eloquently.

But Sandra didn’t actually shoot anyone (yet), did she? That comment meant for another thread MAY indeed be reflective of any Angeleno parent’s secret wish, though.