Matussek made these reportages during a time of radical change - the end of the Reagan/Bush era and Clinton's first year of presidency. The national intoxication with the success of the Gulf War was followed by a hangover in the face of America's home-made problems: the economic crisis, the financial deficit, the street fights in Los Angeles. The stuff of which the American dream is made is worn-out and shabby, but these Stories from America make it clear that it still remains the accepted point of reference. A celebration of the great colonial myth. The basketball-playing ghetto boy who hopes for a big career. The media mogul who conquers continents in the »war of pictures«. And Matussek shows us how the artist and the critic handle this »stuff that dreams are made on«. Cocktail parties and homeless desolation, Broadway fever, the intoxication of consumption and the death sentence of aids – New York, America, has seldom been so intensively experienced as it is here. Linguistic brilliance, wit and an unerring feeling for unexpected details characterise Matussek's impressive and provocative writing.