Turn Left at Greenland: In Search of Real America

by Mark Little

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1902602870
• ISBN13: 9781902602875
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: New Island Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 4.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

fair, intelligent and perceptive

Mark Little was an Irish TV correspondent in D.C. for several years. If his reporting was as good as this book, he's sure to enjoy more success. I admit that I'm a sucker for a great first chapter title. Thus, when I opened this book in an Irish bookstore and saw: Chapter One--The Potato-Sucking Moron, Little had my attention. He never lost it. He lived long enough in the United States to come to know us perhaps better than we know ourselves. The problem with European authors writing about us, Americans that is, is not that they're usually wrong. We usually deserve whatever lumps we get. The real consistent problem with Eurowriting about the USA is that the Eurowriter tends to hypocrisy--to fail to also see our strengths and his or her own nation's weaknesses. Being lectured about our violent, racist society rings pretty hollow from the continent that birthed two horrific world wars and even now faces extreme-right nationalist movements that promote xenophobia. That's what I like best about Little: he does not roll the same tired old gutterball. His observations about politics, society, commerce and climate are all tempered with balance and no small amount of wit. A case in point is his inside look at the latter days of the Gore 2000 presidential campaign: the marketing focus, the cynicism, the utter absence of actual principles and ideas. For my money, he summarized the faults with our current political climate better than any American has yet done. _Turn Left at Greenland_ is a worthy purchase. Special-order it if you have to.