Journalist Kilborn expands on his 2005 New York Times
profile of the “relos,” rootless, upper-middle-class, mid-level executives, “an affluent, hard-striving class” who follow the money “as they migrate through the suburbs of Atlanta and Dallas and the expatriate villages of Beijing and Bombay.” Kilborn explores “relovilles” like West Plano and Flower Mound, Tex., examining their curious, portable and insular culture, surveying the ad hoc “relo economy” that aids the perpetually transient relos. A skillful storyteller, Kilborn captures the costs and loneliness of the relo lifestyle without judging his subjects' choices. Kilborn began research for this book in 2005, when many large corporations responsible for relocating the relos were in such different economic circumstances; as a result, his story feels unfinished. He notes that the national free fall in housing prices has made relos less mobile and that some upper management positions have been eliminated, but fails to mention what kind of effect the economic downturn has had on his subjects' tendency toward conspicuous consumption and what will happen to the ghost towns and ghost strip malls they leave behind as they begin to curb their spending. Photos. (July)
