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Rating: 
Summary: Great Inspiration
Review: A vivid and witty description of the author's career with the US Information Service and the diplomatic corps in Vietnam, Africa and France. Simpson is a good writer with a great sense of humor. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: Kipling Would Love This
Review: Entertaining if episodic accout of life as a diplomat. At times parochial and old-fashioned, the book reads like a nostalgic take on life in the good old days of the Western Empire.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for those who want public diplomacy career track
Review: I bought this book with the hope that it would give me some insight on how to answer the hypothetical questions of the State Department's Foreign Service Oral exam that I have coming up. On the down side, he spent little time discussing his early career, and since I'm going for the Managerial track (his was, I guess, sort of like public diplomacy)it was the gold mine I had hoped for.However, he gave great insight into what real life is like at a hardship post, and his mid- and late- career experiences were invaluable. His experiences show just how important interpersonal relationships are in the foreign service, which contrasted my view that it is all book knowledge and sterile, rely-purely-on-yourself stuff.
Rating:
Summary: BOUGHT FOR [$$$] AT AN OUTLET, I'M AT AMAZON FOR HIS OTHERS
Review: Picked up this little gem at a book outlet -- sorry Amazon -- and I so enjoyed it I'm looking for Simpson's other books. Frankly never heard of him, but its easy to see why there are so many books to his credit. His writing flows with ease and quick wit. If he was anywhere near as good a foreign service officer as he is a writer we ought to get him to the Middle East pronto. Simpson writes "I regret I had but one liver to give my country" or words to that effect. His tales of the diplomatic cocktail circuit in odd, out-of-the way locations are terrific.
Rating:
Summary: Good writing, but not very insightful
Review: This seems to be basically a collection of mildly intriguing antidotes from Mr. Simpson's diary. It gives some idea of what it was like to be an information officer, and some of the stories are interesting. But the book lacks emotion, wallows in neutrality and is quite dated (ending in 1979). Mr. Simpson also strikes one as being more concerned with his lifestyle than the actual job, which is admirable, but not informative. If one is looking to learn what it's really like to be an FSO, particulary in one of the other career tracks within the Foreign Service, there may be better sources out there.
I am now in search of a book that provides more in-depth analysis of the job being done by the State Dept and FSOs overseas.
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