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A review by fipah
The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth
3.0
3 stars = I liked it but it has some issues.
There's not too many books on this topic that are not coffee table books so yes, I did like this because one does learn a lot of varied facts-ish about each of the Nordic countries discussed. However, with some countries more, with some less, I do agree it seems the author has made his opinion in the intro and he sticks to it – the humour as well as plain statements often are too scathing and mocking which is weirdly contrasting with follow-up statements how good things actually are.
For example, the very problematic chapter on women's rights and perceived 'emasculation' of Swedish men uses many mocking statements that uphold the very damaging idea that supposedly feminism, equal pay for all genders, equal paternal and maternal leave or house chores division makes men effeminate and strips them of their masculinity. The jokes and the tone used is very mocking and very backwards event though the author tries to hide behind "Finns perceive Swedes to" or "people think".
Also, the unexplained and totally random segue from these jokes on how Swedish men take care of their kids and how it makes them effeminate to the topic of parental independence and kids being put into care centers because the Swedes can afford that and how that could damage their psyche and, on top of that, how possibly this all is linked to the unhealthy Swedish indepedence both on an idividual as well as the political level (this escalated quickly, right) – this segue is totally random and makes me furious.
These two gigantic topics are not as related as the author makes it seem and what infuriates me is how he just throws these mocking statements rooted in sexism and transphobia left and right (how Swedish soldiers have "their makeup bags" not serve them well against Russian soldiers' weapons – watt, haha, how funny, thanks) and then never resolves them, never tries to make up for that and provide context or his opinion stated in proper sentences – he just moves over to another topic.
Anyway, this chapter ends with something along the lines of "Sweden, however, is still the best for women. If I was a woman I'd know which country to choose." O_o – this precisely represents many other instances of the book – a surplus of scathing or mocking jokes being summarised as "but the Nordic countries are indeed amazing". Cool.
Apart from the neutral-to-weirdly-mysogynist mocking tone, the book does proved lots of interesting anecdotes and personal stories but does not live up to its title – there is no 'behind the myth of the Scandinavian utopia', there is no unraveling of arguments. The book is rather a collection of short thoughts on random topics related to each Nordic country. If you want to read anything about these countries, do pick this up, but do understand this is just one person's opinion that is skewed with repeated figures being interviewed time and time again, so naturally, it is biased of course.
There's not too many books on this topic that are not coffee table books so yes, I did like this because one does learn a lot of varied facts-ish about each of the Nordic countries discussed. However, with some countries more, with some less, I do agree it seems the author has made his opinion in the intro and he sticks to it – the humour as well as plain statements often are too scathing and mocking which is weirdly contrasting with follow-up statements how good things actually are.
For example, the very problematic chapter on women's rights and perceived 'emasculation' of Swedish men uses many mocking statements that uphold the very damaging idea that supposedly feminism, equal pay for all genders, equal paternal and maternal leave or house chores division makes men effeminate and strips them of their masculinity. The jokes and the tone used is very mocking and very backwards event though the author tries to hide behind "Finns perceive Swedes to" or "people think".
Also, the unexplained and totally random segue from these jokes on how Swedish men take care of their kids and how it makes them effeminate to the topic of parental independence and kids being put into care centers because the Swedes can afford that and how that could damage their psyche and, on top of that, how possibly this all is linked to the unhealthy Swedish indepedence both on an idividual as well as the political level (this escalated quickly, right) – this segue is totally random and makes me furious.
These two gigantic topics are not as related as the author makes it seem and what infuriates me is how he just throws these mocking statements rooted in sexism and transphobia left and right (how Swedish soldiers have "their makeup bags" not serve them well against Russian soldiers' weapons – watt, haha, how funny, thanks) and then never resolves them, never tries to make up for that and provide context or his opinion stated in proper sentences – he just moves over to another topic.
Anyway, this chapter ends with something along the lines of "Sweden, however, is still the best for women. If I was a woman I'd know which country to choose." O_o – this precisely represents many other instances of the book – a surplus of scathing or mocking jokes being summarised as "but the Nordic countries are indeed amazing". Cool.
Apart from the neutral-to-weirdly-mysogynist mocking tone, the book does proved lots of interesting anecdotes and personal stories but does not live up to its title – there is no 'behind the myth of the Scandinavian utopia', there is no unraveling of arguments. The book is rather a collection of short thoughts on random topics related to each Nordic country. If you want to read anything about these countries, do pick this up, but do understand this is just one person's opinion that is skewed with repeated figures being interviewed time and time again, so naturally, it is biased of course.