Review. AmericanVertigo. TravelingAmericaInTheFootstepsOfTocqueville. BernardHenriLevy.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Unbearable, June 15, 2011

By Betsy Lee Bohannon - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville (Paperback)

A lawyer learns quickly that a short brief is difficult to write. A long, wordy brief is easy in comparison. This maxim reflects the truth that clear thinking results in crisp, concise writing. Muddy thinking, however, results in turgid verbosity. This book takes "turgid verbosity" to a new level. Who was the target audience for this book? It appears to be the author himself, and perhaps other "French intellectuals," whatever that term might mean. I am sure they are very impressed with the use of obscure and bombastic words strung together with laborious sentences and a general lack of organization. I am not. I'm also glad that we don't have to suffer such intellectuals in this country - a point the author ignores.

Like many others, I put this book down after several hundred pages. Not because it was too hard for me to understand, but because I resent an author writing so poorly that I have to exert myself so much to understand what he is trying to say. The resentment is especially strong when I hear that the author is allegedly a famous intellectual.

Terrible writing aside, the content is also lacking. The author's attempt to define America reminds one of the fable where several blind men attempt to describe an elephant. No correct picture of the image emerges. No political incorrectness intended, but the author has attempted to define America by describing a large number of tiny minorities. One example will suffice -- gun rights activists who collect Nazi memorabilia. It is patently obvious to everyone in this country (except apparently the author) that this microscopically small subset does not begin to accurately describe America's (very diverse) attitudes towards guns and gun rights. I would venture to say that - as Garrison Keilor aptly observed with many specifics - the author failed in his essential purpose. The author either fails to appreciate or chooses to ignore that his vignettes of American culture are not representative of the culture. Whether the author "likes" America or not is beside the point. The samples of American culture are badly chosen and the writing is worse.

This book really, really makes me want to spend a year in France and write a book for the French about France.