Tom Finch is the epitome of the "wise boob" character which Lardner frequently employed in his social satires. Unlike the cruder, more self-absorbed "busher," Finch is a midwesterner with an awareness of his limitations, and he remains unimpressed by the socially ambitious, self-promoting people who surround him. Chief among these are his wife Ella and her sister Kate, who desire to escape what they perceive as the stifling confines of South Bend society and make their marks in the big city. Although Kate's role as the husband-hunting girl is stereotypical, Lardner employs the convention to develop a variety of humorous situations. Kate never seems to realize the folly of her pursuit, and Ella's realization that Life and New York City are not identical comes only at the end. Throughout, the plain-talking Tom Finch scores against the illusions of the fashionable and would-be fashionable that he encounters in his...