Rating: 
Summary: Narrow view--she missed out on a lot.
Review: I tend to agree with "A lot of Intellect, Little Heart." I know Burkett went to Kyrgyzstan with the idea of teaching, but all good teachers learn from their students, and Burkett was so bent on criticizing that she didn't enjoy the differences in culture she professed to be seeking out. Having spent a year in Central Asia, I know the place can be infruriatingly bureaucratic, gloomy, and, well, sure, not as wonderfully enlightened and democratic as the US. So what!!! It's also fascinating, culturally diverse, dynamic, and unbelievably hospitable. She should have recognized from the onset that she wasn't going to "change" anything, per se, in fact, it was arrogant for her to have thought she might. Instead, she might have done her best to impart some new ideas and enjoyed her surroundings a bit more. 70 years of communism may have taken a toll in some negative ways, but they constitute a generation in the history of her hosts' lives (traditions and all) and should not be so summarily dismissed as a waste.
She was particularly snotty about the food, which I found disrespectful. Yeah, a lot of people around the world don't have access to fresh fruits and veggies year round. So, she can't handle a diet of carbs for a few weeks until she jets off to the MIddle East? And the sheep, procuring that sheep might have cost that family a month's salary or more. Would it have killed them to sample just a bit, maybe not from the head but from the body? Why go to such places and get involved with locals if you aren't prepared to be a bit adventurous?
Rating: 
Summary: Good writing, extremely relevant topic
Review: I've read all the previous reader reviews of this book, and I'm struck by the wide variety of opinions regarding Burkett's political point of view. One reviewer calls her "right of center", another says she's radically leftist. How could this be? Did we all read the same book? Actually, I was glad to see that others seem confused about her political stance because that's how I felt after finishing the book. Now, politics aside, I need to say that this book is outstanding and a must-read for anyone (Americans in particular) who considers him or herself politically and culturally aware and active. The street-level accounts of everyday life described by Burkett are exactly what we are NOT getting from the corporate news outlets, and even the independent media's offerings are often low on detail and nuance, none of which is lacking in Burkett's gripping narrative. I cruised through the book happily and eagerly.. and then I ran into her two-page diatribe, very near the end, in which she abruptly lashes out at Western Europeans who criticize the U.S. for its foreign policy while seemingly ignoring the low points of their own historical legacies. It was like Ann Coulter stepped in and wrote for two pages while Burkett ran out to grab a Starbucks or something. I was so taken aback that I had to go back and re-read those two pages after I'd finished the book. Yep - there it still was. I just couldn't figure out how that rant got in there, when the rest of the book seemed to characterize the author as - well, as the kind of person who just wouldn't indulge in that sort of thing. Anyway, then I read the blurbs on the back cover from other authors and - lo and behold! - a blurb supplied by Ann Coulter! I literally got a sick feeling and wondered if I was so obtuse that I may not have noticed that this author was some kind of ultra-conservative. I mean, why else would Ann Coulter supply a recommendation? After further thought and reading the reactions of others, though, I'm confident that Burkett was just letting off steam and that the moderate-to-liberal viewpoint that I thought I detected is indeed the prevalent one. Burkett does tend to sound a bit arrogant at times when commenting on the Central Asians' difficulty with letting go of old ways, but a perceptive reader can easily dismiss this and focus on the nitty gritty of her observations and experiences. Here's hoping Burkett and her husband DON'T go on a cruise for their next trip - how about more travels through those corners of the Eastern world that remain "mysterious" to much of the Western world?
Rating:
Summary: Lots of intellect, little heart
Review: On one level this book is excellent journalism. The author, a journalism prof, takes a year's assignment teaching journalism in Krgyzistan and writes about it here. Her experiences and writing dazzle the reader with incredible accounts of visiting modern-day Iran, Kabul right after the fall of the Taliban, Turkmenistan, and her visits to the other myriad "-stans" of this region.But about halfway through the book, something began to annoy me. So subtle was it that I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Now that I'm 2/3 of the way through, I know what it is. It is the book's tone, more precisely its lack of compassion and heart concerning the experiences and lives of the people who are her subjects. Instead Burkett is far more concerned with showing readers how stupid, backward, pathetic, and clueless the people in this part of the world are. And she spares few words in poking fun at them too. In that way her writing is reminiscient of the book "Holidays In Hell", another book written by an American visiting war torn parts of the world, mainly to make fun of the locals and get a nifty book contract out of it. Burkett often uses the Socratic method in questioning her students as well as others in this region in her efforts to show them the better (and of course, American) way. She gets quite defensive w. people and strikes me as being a highly educated "ugly American" overseas. At first I was impressed with her questioning and argumentation skills; however by halfway through the book it grows tedious and strikes this reader as more showing off by the writer more than anything else. I must give her credit, however, for the wonderful account of her visit to Kabul right after the fall of the Taliban. She met and interviewed Afghan women who'd suffered under the Taliban for the past 5 years. This material gave me gooseflesh. Again, I'm only 2/3 of the way through the book. Something might change, and I might change my mind. But the problems I mention have started to bug me so much, I no longer feel compelled to finish the book...but I'll make myself. So far, this book strikes me as containing mostly one-dimensional reporting about people in other nations that stresses mostly their weaknesses instead of also unearthing their strengths and struggles.
Rating: 
Summary: A Boring, arrogant American Snob...
Review: The Author of this book is the type of person that gives Americans a bad name. A borish, racist, ignornant leftist that tounge and cheeks her way through racist and ignorant comments on a culture she obviously nows nothing about. If you like snoody, rich, white, elitists accounts of 'indian country' then by all means waste your money.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Kick, and What an Education
Review: This is the rarest of books: at once hugely entertaining and hugely thought-provoking; both an exercise in pure fun and an attempt (successful) at genuine political and sociological enlightenment. It's a breezy travel memoir; it's a serious and timely look at the image and impact of the United States abroad. It reflects very much the issues that 9-11 raised, and yet it's also more timeless than that. Burkett bops through the former Soviet Union, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, China and, in almost every place, challenges the conventional wisdom about what's going on and offers less predictable glimpses and insights. It's a book full of hope; it's a book laden with hilariously cranky pessimism. It's terrific.
Rating:
Summary: A new perspective on the Middle East...
Review: Unfortunately, most Americans "learn" about life in Islamic countries only through the news media and only in the context of the War on Terror. Burkett's most significant achievement with this book is to provide a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people in Central Asia and the Middle East - one that avoids the dual pitfalls of self-indulgence (for the most part) and political demagoguery. After reading this book I found it much easier to imagine life in the Middle East and felt I had gained a better understanding of what people in that part of the world love and hate about Americans. It's not a political book per se, but I would highly recommend it as supplemental reading for anyone interested in the region.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe Next Time, They'll Just Take a Cruise
Review: With remarkably unlucky timing, Elinor Burkett and her husband, Dennis, arrive in Kyrgyzstan a week before September 11, 2001. They came to Central Asia in a fit of midlife restlessness, and get rather more than they bargained for. Europe was too easy and South America too familiar. So they decided on Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Republic, and Burkett got a job as a journalism teacher at the Kyrgyz university for a year. After September 11, they decided to stay and stick it out. After all, the attacks had been in their home of Manhattan, halfway around the world. For the next year, in between teaching her journalism classes, Burkett and her husband visited Afghanistan, Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and most of the other -stans. Remarkably enough, they faced almost no physical threats, and nearly everyone they met was fascinated with their American-ness. In every country they visited, even during the Afghanistan war and the run-up to the Iraq invasion, they were welcomed by the people, if not by the border guards, and made to feel welcome. What Elinor and Dennis experienced is what America has experienced internationally -- people everywhere disagreed with American foreign policy, but they welcomed actual Americans. Nearly everyone they encountered, in every country, resented American "meddling" and arrogance, thought that America had brought the New York attacks on themselves, and yet were perfectly willing to share their homes with two American travelers. As a journalist, Burkett knows how to tell a story. So Many Enemies, So Little Time starts off on September 11, 2001, then fills in the gaps a little later. She is very opinionated, and never hesitates to tell her guests and students what she thinks or if their arguments are weak. In spite of this candor, she doesn't seem to fit a blatantly left or right political stereotype. By the time I finished the book, I still couldn't predict who she will vote for in November, 2004. This works in her favor, because if there had been an obvious bias to the right, I wouldn't have been inclined to continue reading, and I'm sure those with a right-wing tendency would feel similarly if the book had been obviously left-leaning. It's a real eye-opener to find out what the average Uzbek or Iranian thinks about America, especially during the events following September 11. By the end of the year of travel, Burkett has reached her limit of hearing America being criticized for interfering too much and for not helping enough. She lashes out, at least on paper, at those who hold America to a higher standard than other countries and who conveniently forget the sins of former Western powers like Germany, Britain, and even Belgium. But her exasperation clouds her reason -- she tells her journalism class that although America had allowed slavery once, we realized it was wrong and stopped it. She doesn't mention that the actual people holding slaves had to be forced to give up slavery after a bloody war. I wonder why she doesn't cut the old European empires the same slack she does for America? So Many Enemies, So Little Time is a real slap-in-the-face of a book. You will have a strong opinion about it, one way or another.
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