Struck by a comment made to him at a luxury-boat show—that today’s yacht owners live in a “different country”—Frank, a Wall Street Journal reporter, takes us on a whiz-bang tour of the lives of the new rich. Richistan is buoyed by startling data: Since 1995, $500 billion has been raised in initial public offerings, and America today has 367 billionaires, up from just 13 in 1985.

Frank points out that “liquidity events,” such as selling your garage startup to Google, say, for $1.7 billion or inventing Hot Pockets and unloading the business for $2.6 billion, are the most common sources of new wealth. But because so many residents of Lower, Middle, and Upper Richistan have their wealth tied to the stock market instead of to real estate and the factories of yesteryear, they are vulnerable to sudden shocks to the system. Just ask Larry Ellison!

Wandering through Richistan, we learn how the lucky few manage to spend their mountains of cash (on political campaigns, jets, wealth camps to teach their kids how to manage being rich, vast personal staffs, private golf courses). But this isn’t a book of profound insight. Frank hops from one person complaining about the “house manager,” as the butler is now known, to another building a garish mansion. He’s too apt to use the example of one Richistani to make a point about them all. Still, the wry writing makes it obvious that Frank had a good time on the ride.