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A little pat and a bit condescending? Perhaps. The inconsistent style and tone of many of these essays reflect Fussell's own ad hoc approach. His true targets are insecure members of the middle class, who think that saying "home" rather than "house" and "rest room" instead of "toilet" - confers breeding. He spices up the gun-control issue with a modest proposal: all firearms owners should be required to enlist in a local militia for training. And he is contemptuous of authors who write letters to the editor complaining about unfavorable reviews: a "new prose genre, new because so perfectly in tune with contemporary tendencies toward thin-skinned neurosis, egotism, and the consequent demand for favorable personal publicity."
Fussell can be boorish, but he is never boring. Unpleasantness, as he sees it, must be faced; language needs to be shorn of euphemisms, and good reading is where you find it. When he quotes Orwell on back issues of the Girl's Own Paper, he could be talking about his own book: "For casual reading -- in your bath, for instance, or late at night when you are too tired to go to bed, or in the odd quarter of an hour before lunch." Bon appetit!