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Summary: A Fantastic Book for a Fantastic City
Review: I loved this book. France is entirely entitled to her opinion - she documents her own unique experience in Argentina. To suggest that she should document it any other way is bureacratic and absurd. I laughed out loud and never found the book condescending. I would love to hear France's opinions on BA today and especially if she could first visit/stay in some other cities to compare. I'm thinking specifically of Belfast, NYC (long lines anyone?) Moscow or Phom Pen. Gotta go, analyst appointment....
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Summary: Wishing BA could live up to its potential
Review: I loved this book. France is entirely entitled to her opinion - she documents her own unique experience in Argentina. To suggest that she should document it any other way is bureacratic and absurd. I laughed out loud and never found the book condescending. I would love to hear France's opinions on BA today and especially if she could first visit/stay in some other cities to compare. I'm thinking specifically of Belfast, NYC (long lines anyone?) Moscow or Phom Pen. Gotta go, analyst appointment....
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Summary: Not a traditional travel/tourism book.
Review: If you want a travel or tour book for Buenos Aires, don't buy this book. You will be disappointed. It is more a series of essays about the author's living in Bs As for a period of about a year. As such, it gives some insight into certain social and economic conditions in Argentina ranging from vivenza criolla (Creole cunning), to the "Dirty War," the war against Britain for the Falkland Islands, tango, and many other topics.I read this book as a tanguero whose instructors have returned to Bs As on an annual basis. We have a concern about what is happening in Argentina. We have friends who live there. The information in "Bad Times in Buenos Aires" is quite timely in view of a recent currency devaluation, currency restrictions, and multiple business and personal bankruptcies and personal tragedies. There has been a concern about economic conditions for years. One did not really need a crystal ball to be able to predict what was going to happen. Although written by a journalist, it gives some insight into both social and economic matters. I find myself asking why bad things happened in Argentina. Not too long ago, Argentina had an economy that was stronger than that of either Canada or France. Many things that happened in Argentina also happened in Chile [military dictatorship, economic problems, and citizens who disappeared], but with a different result. Inquiring minds want to know why. I wanted to know why. No book has all the answers, but it provides a good starting place for discussion. I value "Bad Times in Buenos Aires" for the insight it has given me. It is not the kind of book that would ever make me decide not to go to Buenos Aires. Quite the contrary, it would encourage me to go and open my eyes to something other than dance lessons and milongas in San Telmo and other tango venues. As tourists, we often tend to be short-sighted and see only the things that tour organizers want us to see. We need to do more and develop the sensitivity to understand another country and its people. With international understanding and cooperation, problems can be solved. However, we must remember that problems are solved by the collective action of many people, not just leaders and employees of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and multi-national corporations. It also takes individual citizens. It may help if you go to Buenos Aires on your annual vacation.
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Summary: A Great Read
Review: Miranda France's book is wonderful. It looks like many of the reviewers here on Amazon think that France should have sugarcoated her experiences with unctuous and patronizing enthusiasm. Through her fine writing, France seems rigorously honest. If you want shallow pleasantries talk to a diplomat or buy a postcard. If you want to know what BA is really like, read this book. Obviously, I'm not the only one who is occasionally frustrated with Latin culture. The have-nots truly have not and barely exist. The haves are usually deeply narcissistic and preoccupied with appearance, class and race (France wrote about one woman who boasted she was 100% European and pretty much grateful that most of the native peoples of Argentina had been exterminated). France has great talent! I think she was just in her 20's when she wrote this book. If I were she, however, I would have given the book a different title. For those of you who have been offended by this book, maybe you need to look a bit deeper.
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Summary: Like good travel writing? ¿ read this!
Review: Miranda France's first book is a neat, informative and sometimes amusing introduction to Buenos Aires: its history, culture and people. Whilst I started off with only a general curiosity for Argentina, my interest has been much awakened by the author's vivid and thoroughly researched accounts. France takes the reader through her experiences in Buenos Aires by focusing on a series of different aspects of the city and its culture: Evita, the Falklands, the 'Dirty War' and the preoccupation with self analysis provide several examples. This approach is made interesting through the way France depicts the time she spent there, shown through meetings with many different people. These range from neighbours, to workers in cafes and stalls, to more prominent members of Buenos Aires society - with a chilling revelation made by one person that she talks to featured towards the end of the book. However, what comes across more than anything is the sadness which seems so deeply built into Buenos Aires: the 'disappeared', the story of Evita, the origins of tango, and Argentine 'bronca' all reflect an unsettled culture which, ultimately, France herself becomes caught up in. In the end, it is this that wills her back home, though she must now look back with much affection. This is a fascinating first picture of a city and country many of us do not know much about. 'Bad Times in Buenos Aires' is a treat to read, and despite what the title suggests, may even encourage one or two readers to go and experience it for themselves. Definitely a recommended book for anyone who enjoys good travel writing.
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Summary: A funny and entertaining book about the city I live in!
Review: Miranda France's intention is not to address the Argentine culture in an academic way but to share with the reader her stay in the "Paris of the Americas". I have to agree that potential visitors to Buenos Aires may not find it very encouraging nor touristically informative. Yet foreigners who have lived or live in Buenos Aires will find in this book the perfect answer to family and colleagues' questions: so, how is it other there, in Argentina? This book made me laugh about my misfortunes in Buenos Aires and made me realize I would miss this damn place when I go...Delightful.
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Summary: An excellent flavour of Buenos Aires today
Review: Ms France captures perfectly the many facets of Buenos Aires today as the inhabitants struggle to come to terms with the "Dirty War", the long shadow of the Perons, and with ever-so-slow improvements to the worn out infrastructure. The book revolves around themed chapters (such as "Evita" or "Las Malvinas son Argentinas") and focuses heavily on the people the auther meets. Clear prose. Perceptive, funny and poignant. Highly recommended
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Summary: Excuse me!
Review: Nobody can say this is a very good book. Nobody can say this is perfection. Nobody can say Buenos Aires is an ugly place. But first of all, nobody should spend time reading this really bad book!
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Summary: Perfection !
Review: Of course Buenos Aires residents are too myopic to see the absolute truth the author has discovered about their city, therefore there are a number of negative reviews of this book. But if ever a city or a people were crumbling before our very eyes, it is this city and these people! Bravo ! Great picture of an ugly place !
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Summary: Patronising piffle
Review: Of course, all foreigners are terribly entertaining.... so endearingly eccentric. How lucky they were to meet Ms France, who could coolly flirt with them, listen to their odd little obsessions, and smile at the hopeless inefficiency of it all, even, perhaps, become ever so slightly fond of the place before returning back to England (where of course everything works perfectly and there are never queues in supermarkets...). And she writes so extraordinarily badly! Seemingly anxious about the power of her descriptions to entertain us, she insistently chucks in her flights of fancy. It is not enough to point out that a map on the wall has blue tape covering the words 'the Falklands', Ms France must tell us of her idea of the official sent to run around stationers to by it. Tee hee. This is an immature book. With sympathetic editing, some of the promising material could have been shaped into a worthwhile book. But as it stands it lacks any of the humility that ought to inform a young foreigner writing about a foreign country in which they have only lived for a short time, and too many of the descriptions of Argentinians she meets seem to seek humour at the expense of understanding. The author may go on to do better things; those who should be truly embarrassed by it are the London press who puffed it.... but how much reliance can you put on a review in The Times?
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