France vs. Lake Woebegone

Tomorrow’s New York Times Sunday Book Review includes Garrison Keillor’s hysterical and devastating review of American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. The book released on Tuesday by Random House.

Here’s an excerpt of Keillor’s first paragraph:

Any American with a big urge to write a book explaining France to the French should read this book first, to get a sense of the hazards involved. . . . It is the classic Freaks, Fatties, Fanatics & Faux Culture Excursion beloved of European journalists. . . . it dawns on you that this is a book about the French. There’s no reason for it to exist in English, except as evidence that travel need not be broadening and one should be wary of books with Tocqueville in the title.

 

Read the review and a sample chapter of the book (you may have to register at the NYTimes site).

28. January 2006 by Mindy
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