the most searing indictment of the American rich ever written.

It's Fitzgerald's "The Diamond As Big As the Ritz". Surreal, funny and nasty as hell.

Here are a couple of choice bits. Not that the entire story isn't choice:

"Jasmine, the elder daughter, resembled Kismine in appearance--except that she was somewhat bow-legged, and terminated in large hands and feet--but was utterly unlike her in temperament. Her favorite books had to do with poor girls who kept house for widowed fathers. John learned from Kismine that Jasmine had never recovered from the shock and disappointment caused her by the termination of the World War, just as she was about to start for Europe as a canteen expert. She had even pined away for a time, and Braddock Washington had taken steps to promote a new war in the Balkans--but she had seen a photograph of some wounded Serbian soldiers and lost interest in the whole proceedings. But Percy and Kismine seemed to have inherited the arrogant attitude in all its harsh magnificence from their father. A chaste and consistent selfishness ran like a pattern through their every idea. "

"It's absurd," commented Kismine. "Think of the millions and millions of people in the world, laborers and all, who get along with only two maids."

"There go fifty thousand dollars' worth of slaves," cried Kismine, "at prewar prices. So few Americans have any respect for property."

http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/diamond/diamond.html