Exurbia Revisited

THE EXURBANITES, by A. C. Spectorsky. Lippincott. $3.95.

I looked up recently after a sojourn abroad to find that a new word had sneaked into the language while my back was turned, like the 8:55 crawling into the station at Weehawken. The word is exurbanite, and unlike the West Shore Railroad it is probably here to stay, since it fulfills what the social workers call an unmet need. Its coiner, A. C. Spectorsky, like Sinclair Lewis before him, has used it to title his book.

Mr. Spectorsky’s The Exurbanites is both a good and an exasperating book. It is good because it is a pioneering investigation into the mores of the new middle class who have spilled out of their city apartments into the country areas beyon...