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Summary: Who is John Galt?
Review: An interesting post 9/11 travelogue into strife-ridden areas that most of us wouldn't include in our vacation itineraries. Authored with right of center slant, it is useful to understand that Ms Burkett approaches her work anecdotally and doesn't project herself as an expert on the experiences she attempts to share. Her unique paradigm from which she sees women changing the world is worth the read.
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Summary: Another World
Review: At my wife's urging, and under protest, I read this book. It should be required reading of everyone in this country, so they can gain a better understanding of the mindset we are up against. The author writes in a very readable and interesting style, and her descriptions and conclusions are clear and concise. It is a very difficult book to put down once you start reading.
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Summary: Who is John Galt?
Review: Ayn Rand foretold the consequences. Elinor Burkett experienced the aftermath.
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Summary: Painful prose
Review: Burkett's journey is an interesting one. But her writing is so incredibly self conscious, full of chunky words with absolutely no flow, that the book becomes a difficult read. A sample sentence: "Rather than plod through the expected, I let myself be swept along past the graceful architecture of old Silk Road cities like Khiva and Bukhara into the center of Kabul during its first unreal days of freedom and to an Iran just emerging from behind its national chador, moving to the syncopation of calculated daring and the adagio of improvised caution."
Ple-e-e-e-e-z!!!
And that's just one sample of incredibly pretentious and strained prose that runs throughout this book. I recommend the author's journalism students heed this as a writing style to avoid - the writing gets in the way of the story, instead of telling it. How on earth did this author qualify for a Fulbright?
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Summary: Unfocused and rambling
Review: Elinor Burkett and her husband, Dennis, having become restless and wanting what might be a final adventure, decide they want to spend some time abroad. Not as tourists, but she as a teacher and he as her companion. They've been to Europe, South America and other usual destinations. Checking on the Fulbright program, she elects to become a professor, teaching journalism in Kyrgyzstan, a fragment of the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately, it seems, they arrive at their home for the next year a week before 9/11.
The book begins right after the attack when all Americans abroad must have been frightened and wanting to go home. She and Dennis, like several others elect to stay. This beginning makes some readers think that this book will be the story of fear and frustration as they cope with hatred and tension over their being Americans in a part of the world that must hate them and their country.
But there is actually very little of that which is what makes her story amazing. During the months following 9/11, the two of them travel to countries in central Asia and the far east. The only real difficulties in their travels is getting there -- the beueaucracy and bribes, suspicions of minor border guards. Everywhere they hear much the same things from the people: America is arrogant and brought the attacks on itself by interfering in the affairs of other states. They should keep their noses out of other people's business. But why don't they do something about . . . (take your pick)" Never has it been more clear that America has such a love-hate relationship with the rest of the world.
In her teaching in the Kyrgyz university her own biases keep her at odds with the administration. In her mind, she is there to teach the journalism students western-style, in-your-face reporting. Never does she say that's what she was asked to do. But this is the style she knows and it puzzles her that none of her students understand, or want to understand, how to do things her way. Nor does she understand their willingness to accept the status quo, or their desire for a return to Communist control. Independence and individual freedom seem beyond their ability to accept.
What surprises most Americans who read this story is our lack of understanding about most of the smaller countries that the Soviet Union brought inside their boundaries. We tend to think that they must be grateful for the breakup of the Soviet state and attaining their new-found freedom. Not so. Everywhere the Burketts run into people who long for the return of order and running water. They accept governments of nearly cult personalities. And wish America would help them get back some of the things they miss most. But don't tell them what to do.
The Burketts' journey is an amazing one through countries where most of us would fear to go. This is an informative read about peoples we don't even begin to understand. But perhaps we can begin to understand that, although we value our way of freedom so highly, not everyone else can embrace it.
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Summary: i don't recommend this book
Review: I didn't even finish reading this book. Her descriptions of Central Asia are inaccurate and seem to contain more fictional value instead of factual.
The book has a definite far left winged agenda. Also, I felt that attempts of humor were weak. Overall, the book was a waste of money - but if you are a female liberal, you might enjoy it.
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Summary: Loved it
Review: I enjoyed Burkett's tales of her 1 year teaching experience in Kyrgyzstan and her sidetrips through Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, & Russia (hope I didn't leave any place out). Her bluntly honest writing style is refreshing in this age of political correctness. Her experiences in each country were different, but probably the main theme of the book can be summed up in one of her paragraphs:"Even the most virulent revilers of the Stars and Stripes were tangled in contradictions, spouting half-truths based less on U.S. foreign policy than on local political machinations. They were simultaneously applying for visas to a country they claimed to despise, and demanding that American cease its adventurism while insisting, with equal intensity, that American solve the world's problems." I do have to contradict one of Ms. Burkett's statements that Americans don't see Russian movies. I saw my first Russian movie while I was a student at U.T. Austin. It was "Siberiade". Now, 20 years later I enjoy Russian movies on VHS & DVD owned by my public library system, which, by the way, have pretty decent check-out histories.
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Summary: Informative & highly readable
Review: I found this book fascinating for the insights it gave me into parts of the world I know very little about. I now feel that I know more about the breakup of the former USSR, about the "-stans" that used to be part of it and how they are different from each other, about social and economic factors which are influencing events in central Asia, and about how and why tribal interactions affect politics in some countries.
I can understand the "Lots of Intellect, Little Heart" reviewer's point, because I too did not always agree with Ms. Burkett, but for me this did not detract from the value of the book. Overall I think this may have been the most highly readable "geography lesson" I've ever encountered.
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Summary: One of my favorite Authors.
Review: I have read all of Elinor Burkett's books - which are on such diverse subjects as AIDS, and the state of our school system. Elinor would probably be the first to admit that she is a pushy, opinionated liberal jew - and these traits show up in this book. However, one gets the feeling that this is exactly what is needed when she battles with the school and her students in Kyrgyzstan to teach them about freedom of the press and how to be an investigative reporter. This area of the world has a history of censorship and I don't care what your political leanings are, I think we can all agree this is wrong. I could not put this book down as Elinor describes her exciting journey to Afghanistan as well as her daily battles with everyday living in Kyrgyzstan. The one fault I have with the book is in the Epilogue. She goes to China and all she can do is say how wonderful everything is there - everything seems so luxurious compared to Kyrgyzstan. Since the rest of her book seemed so balanced, I was waiting for her to critcize China for its censorship practices or the atrocities committed in Tibet. But all she could say was how great it was to be able to go to Starbucks. All in all, I would recommend this book, as well as her others, to anybody who wants to learn more about the world.
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Summary: Fabulous journey for the vicarious adventurer...
Review: I looooved this read. I am in awe of so many of the qualities Ms. Burkett possesses...most importantly her ability to take the reader along in an almost virtual sense. She had me on the first page and guided me through one of the most fascinating journeys I've taken in years. At times frightening, at times ironic and hysterical. Burkett flies in the face of horrific ineptitude, ignorance, fear and "ugly americanism". At the end of the day what surprised me most was the beauty of the human spirit she was able to reveal. I am better for the experience.
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