Library Journal
In this easy-to-read and earnestly middlebrow book, free-lance writer Simmons has collected reflections of numerous non-Americans concerning life in the good ol' U.S.A. To judge from some foreign observers, America is Utopia--but the blunt comments of Mexican campesinos , cynical Soviet journalists, and snooty Brits help bring things down to earth. Some of the anecdotes are amusing, particularly the reaction of Easter Islanders upon watching a video tape of a vigorous Leonard Bernstein conducting Brahms: ```Ho, ho, ho,' they roared. `We have never seen so many people play just so one man can dance!''' For a more intellectually provocative discussion of the same topic, try Jean Baudrillard's America ( LJ 1/89).-- Kent Worcester, Columbia
Booknews
America as seen through the eyes of hundreds of contemporary foreigners--from Russian emigres to Iranian mullaks, Swedish actresses to Italian film directors, British royals to illegal Mexican immigrants. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
In this easy-to-read and earnestly middlebrow book, free-lance writer Simmons has collected reflections of numerous non-Americans concerning life in the good ol' U.S.A. To judge from some foreign observers, America is Utopia--but the blunt comments of Mexican campesinos , cynical Soviet journalists, and snooty Brits help bring things down to earth. Some of the anecdotes are amusing, particularly the reaction of Easter Islanders upon watching a video tape of a vigorous Leonard Bernstein conducting Brahms: ```Ho, ho, ho,' they roared. `We have never seen so many people play just so one man can dance!''' For a more intellectually provocative discussion of the same topic, try Jean Baudrillard's America ( LJ 1/89).-- Kent Worcester, Columbia
Booknews
America as seen through the eyes of hundreds of contemporary foreigners--from Russian emigres to Iranian mullaks, Swedish actresses to Italian film directors, British royals to illegal Mexican immigrants. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
