Also of interest... in American class conflict

Among the Bros by Max Marshall (Harper, $30)

In many U.S. universities, “being asked to join a fraternity means having a safe place to behave badly,” said Sarah Hagi in The Guardian. In Max Marshall’s portrait of that culture, frat brothers at the College of Charleston build a multimillion-dollar drug ring that’s only broken up after a murder occurs. While “full of tales of secretive hazing,” Among the Bros is keenest on showing what happens when select young men are not only freed to misbehave but are rewarded with lucrative post-college careers.

America Fantastica by Tim O’Brien (Mariner, $32)

The first novel in 21 years from the author of The Things They Carried is a very different book, said Sam Sacks in The Wall Street Journal. Opening with a robbery and eventually taking in a crowded rogues’ gallery, this “caustic and very often funny” book follows a pathological liar as he goes on the run with a plucky hostage and gradually comes to realize that he can’t keep up with the chicanery of more powerful Americans. It’s part “absurdist satire,” part “bitter lamentation.”

People Collide by Isle McElroy (HarperVia, $29)

Gender-swap stories usually produce predictable comedy, but this “fascinating” novel “brings new life to the concept,” said Charlie Jane Anders in The Washington Post. For no good reason, a newlywed named Eli wakes up in his wife’s body, and as he struggles to perform femininity, he also gains insight into the elite world she grew up in. Eli’s wife is less likable. But the finale of their story proves “so good that it elevates the entire book, making it one of the year’s most compelling reads.”

Flight of the WASP by Michael Gross (Atlantic Monthly Press, $30)

“Do WASPs still have something to offer the rest of us?” asked Alexandra Jacobs in The New York Times. Surprisingly, journalist Michael

Gross thinks so. After writing cattier books about America’s elites, he has returned with a fairly reverent history of a dozen old-money families. Though he’s stern about their worst deeds, such as embracing slavery, he champions reviving certain of their ideals. Reading the book isn’t fun; “it’s more like pulling down a few volumes of the old Encyclopaedia Britannica.”