TO some, our obsessive bent toward refinement has created humanity's greatest triumphs: art, architecture, music, Cobb salad. Others wring their hands at more suspect refinements -- white flour, white sugar, white chocolate -- and see only doom. But do we have a choice? According to the recent book ''A History of the World in 100 Objects,'' the...
We had to squint. The light bouncing off the more than 30 carats of tooth-size diamonds on our wrist seared our retinas. Then we had to sit down. The wristwatch we tried on at the opening party for the Swiss watch company Vacheron Constantin's first American shop, on Madison Avenue, on Tuesday night cost $905,000. ''Wait! We're not about bling,''...

Jay McInerney begins his review of Richard Powers's new novel, ''Generosity,'' with the admission that he has shied away from Powers in the past. ''I knew I was supposed to read him,'' he explained in a recent e-mail message, ''but it sounded like the kind of improving enterprise that I resist strenuously, like going to the gym or eating lots of...