Rating: 
Summary: The writer sounds like unexperienced about cultural issues.
Review: For me the writer does consider the things in Latin America right or wrong or black or white but forgets to thing everything is just different from London.There are too much generalizations involved to her book that may not be agreed with most of the people who are living in Buenos Aires. Last, A classic British view to Buenos Aires. Do not loose your money.
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Summary: A City: The Best of Times and the Worst.....
Review: Having lived in Buenos Aires for two years and loving my stay in Argentina, this book was a difficult one to read. It does not capture the romantic image of Buenos Aires that I like to remember. Still, it is a very healthy counterpoint that one needs to be aware of if they are going to live in Buenos Aires as something other than a tourist. The chapter on psychoanalysis reflects a special insight on the people who live there. Alas, her observations were something I heard from many Argentines. To this day it is something that I will never understand. Yes, it is true that a book like this can be written on any city. In fact, I think Los Angeles, New York and other U.S. cities already have their fair share! It is not especially racist, to use one reviewers words, to spread the wealth of seeing the less desirable features of any culture. After saying all that, I like the country and think that France was a little too negative. Buenos Aires is not a city that tourists will get to know. It is a city where one survives on relationships. As with any place in the world, if you associate with those of a cheerful and positive outlook, your own views will be optimistic. The reverse is also true.
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Summary: Summarizes much of what I felt after experiencing this city!
Review: I admire Ms. France's ability to have captured this city's psyche. How could people have lived through what they did over the past half-century and not be in emotional turmoil? How else could they rationalize all that has been squandered and pillaged: the lost promise of a country and city as proud and successful as any in western Europe or the new world (Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand...). How could they have tolerated the regimes of the Generals and Admirals? Or created the myth of Evita? Like Ms. France, I loved Buenos Aires and its inhabitants, but not enough to marry them and make them a part of my family. No wonder some of the reviewers on this page are outraged: they do not want to face up to the past of this amazing city and society. (My what Buenos Aires could have been, combining the architectural charm of Paris, the culture exuberance of Madrid, the entrepreneurial dynamism of New York, the fine weather of Miami, and the overall affluence of London.) And maybe these writers are right in claiming that a Brit like Ms. France -- or a Canadian like me -- cannot objectively write about their city. Maybe, but I doubt it. One only has to wander into Herrods on the Florida Mall to realize how broken a dream Argentina and Buenos Aires have become. Even the grander emporia of the Galerias Pacifico cannot make amends for the shabbiness of the metropolis itself. The residents do try to make the best of what they have, and must be admired. But they have been so betrayed by their forebearers that pyschosis is inescapable. And this is what Ms. France has so perfectly caught in this diary of her days in Buenos Aires. Certainly, a book like this could probably be written about just about any large city in the world, and each country does tend to have its own psychological profile. But this book is about Buenos Aires, and that city's psychosis is laid bare in it. The book's critics might well look to curing the disease, rather than trying to shoot the messenger. I plan to return to Buenos Aires later this year (if I'm let in after this review) because despite all the foregoing, and all the things included in Ms. France's book, it is a city well worth visiting and spending time in. If only to understand how it got this way...
Rating:
Summary: Nothing but lies
Review: I can't understand how this woman can lie so deliberately, and finish wining a prize for it.
I live in Buenos Aires and bought this books for curiosity; but even in the few first pages it's seen that the author's intention is to lie almost in every line. I know that my city is not perfect of course, just like any other, and have many peculiarities, but one thing is to make a constructive critique about the real problems of the city and its people, and other very different is to invent and see things where they aren't. What this woman has done is to take some preconceptions about Argentina and its people and make them come true in an incredibly delirious way. This woman is nothing but a liar and a fable teller. The book can be entertaining to you, but take in mind that you are making a false image of the city.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the read
Review: I found the book well written and enjoyed it very much. Never having been to Buenos Aires, I'll let the Argentines and the ex-pats living there hash out the amount of inaccuracies in the book. It's a place I've always wanted to visit and this book actually only increased my desire to go there. This book reminded me of the saying: "You see the world not as it is, but as you are". More accurately, one probably sees the world as a combination of the two. While I read the book I did have the impression that Ms. France was seeing her world around her with some pretty negative filters. None the less, it was well worth the read. I look forward to her next book.
Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Book for a Fantastic City
Review: I had the privilege of living in Buenos Aires from my late childhood through mid-teens. I adore Buenos Aires and consider it and New York to be my hometowns. In many ways, I'd say that this book could've been written about New York - both are huge, vibrant, overwhelming, dirty, sparkling, and absolutely magnificent places, founded by fortune-seeking immigrants and constantly seeming to be on the verge of crisis. And like New Yorkers, Portenos take great pride in the fact that they live in such a place - our big is the biggest, or bad is the worst, and our good is the absolute best. And we wouldn't have it any other way. I like that Ms. France didn't gloss over or marginalise the ever-present image of Eva Peron - unlike so many writers, who seek to minimize her continuing influence, or relegate it to the old, Ms. France shows that even in this day, Evita has a hold on the nation she did so much to help. I'm proud to say that my family - both my mother's (Jewish) and my father's (Italian) were and remain committed Peronistas, and even during the darkest years of La Guerra Sucia, they kept their pictures and books by Evita - and both sides still use the prayerbooks put out (both Catholic and Jewish) after her untimely passing, which feature prayers for her. I still have mine, and continue that tradition here in the States. My main beef with the book was that it wasn't longer. Write more of the vibrant streetlife and cafe society! Mention the food, the joys and terrors of taking the underground, the Spanish so liberally peppered with Italian and Yiddish! Reading this brought on a bittersweet sense of homesickness, and mandates a trip home soon (I literally got a lump in my throat when Ms. France described the Peronista rally where they chanted "Se Siente - Se Siente - Evita Esta Presente!" - the same chant we would exultantly howl during our Peronista Youth Front meetings before the catastrophe... Ms. France got one thing wrong - Buenos Aires Te Mata is NOT a lament, it's a boast, a challenge to the world. Most Portenos say it with perverse pride, and would consider it a badge of honour. After all, it's a rare privilege to be able to say it! Even bad times in Buenos Aires beat good times almost everywhere else!
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Summary: interesting view of Latin American culture from an outsider
Review: I have not lived in Buenos Aires, I lived in Sao Paulo and Bahia Brazil. I decided to read this book however because I wanted to see if some of the experiences the author had were similar to mine. And many certainly were! I can understand about the bureauracracies, the corruption, the obsession with appearance esp. as it pertains to women, the sometimes shallow interests of people who live in the city, and the sentimentality displayed at the most mundane things. Reading this I felt that I was not alone in my feelings. But the thing to remember is that this is an outsiders point of view so it is not gospel. If I wrote I book by no means would it be a definitive study of Sao Paulo or Brazil. Some things are comming from the preconceptions we have as foreigners. But despite some of the bad experiences I had in Sao Paulo and Bahia. I also had many wonderful ones which I will cherish forever. I think that was the best thing about the book, that despite her problems, France still found the good in her friendships, the rhythm of the city, and the people.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyed it
Review: I imagine it is tough to write about about the culture of another country, as you most certainly set yourself up for criticism from all parties. I imagine there were some stereotypes in this book. Nevertheless I enjoyed reading it very much. Ms. France is a very good writer. She conveys a mixture of feelings and fact. I've spent some time in Buenos Aires, and I'm going to recommend that my Argentine friends read this book. I'd be very curious as to their comments.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry for writer...
Review: I just could not finish this book. It is so mean. Why should a writer bother to stay in a country just to critize everything, exagerate and write all her negative points of view. I was born in Buenos Aires, I live in Canada, I have live in Norway and I travelled a lot around the world (London included, city that I loved). I am not a fanatic nationalist and I think this book is so unfair. Some British hate Argentina and some Argentinians hate Great Britain, because of the Malvinas (Falklands) war, because of the Soccer World Cup, because of Maradona or Beckman... who knows... and who cares. I gave this book to a canadian friend who was curious about my comments about it, and he agrees that this book is awful to read. I am sorry for the writer, she lost lots of time in a beautiful city and she did not enjoy it at all. It is a waste of time...
Rating:
Summary: France's deplorable product
Review: I lived for 2 years in Buenos Aires (1997-1999), and I found the writer obtuse and opinionated. After reading the book, I thought it was not worth a dime, so I went straight to the book shop, returned it , got my money back, and bought a serious book about Buenos Aires instead.
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