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A review by enridav
A House Somewhere: Tales Of Life Abroad by Anthony Sattin, Don George
2.0
I am sure I am not the target audience for this book. I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I'm not going to say it was unbearable, but maybe saying it was disappointing would fit it best. The 20+ tales can be divided into two groups: (1) those written by people who actually moved and recognized themselves as immigrants, and (2) the tales written by passerby who labeled themselves "expatriate" (for their own sanity).
The former were enjoyable as you could see those writers were actually open-minded and engaged in getting to know the culture and country they're experiencing. Unfortunately, they were just a handful; less than five by my own count. Meanwhile, the second second group was full of tales that tasted as snobbiness, tiredness of being abroad, and no interest whatsoever on taking the chance of living abroad to get to know different people, views of the world, and cultures. No wonder those same writers only mentioned they stayed for a couple of years in "exotic" foreign lands. At the end of the day, I was just as tired of their life abroad as they were.
The former were enjoyable as you could see those writers were actually open-minded and engaged in getting to know the culture and country they're experiencing. Unfortunately, they were just a handful; less than five by my own count. Meanwhile, the second second group was full of tales that tasted as snobbiness, tiredness of being abroad, and no interest whatsoever on taking the chance of living abroad to get to know different people, views of the world, and cultures. No wonder those same writers only mentioned they stayed for a couple of years in "exotic" foreign lands. At the end of the day, I was just as tired of their life abroad as they were.