France on the Brink

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Summary: The best primer on today's France.
Review: Anglo Saxons (as the French like to call both Americans and Britons) have long preferred the France of Peter Mayle to the complex society tackled by Fenby in this book. "A Year in Provence" was more revealing about the psychology of a certain kind of Englishman than about France; "France On the Brink" takes on the difficult task of trying to understand France on its own terms, and therein lies its value. Americans in particular, will find the realistic appraisal of of French merits and demerits refreshingly free of the usual cant to which they are treated by propagandists for the American way.

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Summary: A perceptive and extraordinary book
Review: As an American who speaks French and who has friends all around that wonderful country, I found this book to be perceptive and important. While it is true that one can easily catalog problems in any country, I think that the importance of France on the world stage demanded that this book be written.

Critical to Fenby's thinking is his idea that the leadership in France is more and more inbred and separated from the people. The system allows for immense concentrations of power without effective checks and balances. The resulting lack of "tranparence" in fiscal and political matters should really be quite appalling to the French population.

Unlike the previous reviewer, I find a sense of malaise in many of my friends and acquaintances there and a special sense of unhappiness among the unemployed and underemployed, especially among the young.

I do see France as being "on the brink" in the sense that it has fundamental decisions to make about how it will govern itself (increasing accountability versus perpetuation of "une classe politique"), how it will manage its economic system (creation of real jobs versus quaint solutions such as the 35 hour work week), and how it will truly integrate the large number of people who are on the outside looking in.

I would recommend this book to people who are interested in some of the problems and promises of contemporary France.

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Summary: Worth reading, but gets tied up in a knot or two
Review: Fenby clearly loves France (don't we all?) and appreciates the way it combines the wonderful with the maddening, the rational with the irrational, the generous with the selfish. Whether he or the publishers are right to suggest that France is "on the brink" of some serious crisis is, however, another matter. Living in Germany and traveling frequently to France, I get the impression France is increasingly in better shape than its neighbor. Many French have a problem with globalization (Americanization?), but in lots of ways the country is much more modern and sprightly than its European neighbors. So the book rather overstates its central argument. Its strongest points are its detailed accounts of the political, financial and business scandals of the Mitterrand years - quite staggering, when you come to think of them. The book's weakness is that it drifts too much into a blow-by-blow account of recent high politics in Paris, most of which won't be of any lasting concern even to the French themselves. Earlier reviewers who accuse Fenby of having anti-this and anti-that axes to grind are being unfair - overall, he gets the balance right.

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Summary: A Bulls-eye
Review: Fendy says up front that he is not a francophobe...hmmm. Whatever the case, this account is tough to refute. He spends most of his time stressing the dire outlook of France as the country builds another nuclear submarine, while neglecting basic social and economic questions. He also reveals what a crook the average French politician is, the embodiment of which was none other than Mr. Mitterand. Fenby also analyzes the results of the social/economic malaise in France, from the far right's xenophobia, to the widespread America bashing in the Hexagon. He points out that all McDonald's restaurants in France are LOCALLY owned, and that virtally all of the milk, spuds, and beef therein are FRENCH grown. Finally, he stresses that this chain employs 25000 (French) people in France (the French unemployment rate has not gone below 9% in over a decade). José Bové should read this before he sacks his next "McDo's".

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Summary: Clear Central Thesis Laid Out with Occasional Tedia
Review: First of all, this is book to be read for its cogency of thought rather than entertainment of exposition. Secondly, the central thesis is important: that France is politically on the verge of ideological bankruptcy; and the recent events of the French political scene can be understood by the corrupt and cynical dealings of a handful of political celebreties. Thirdly, the centerl thesis is laid out with frequent hisorical, anthropological, and other cultual digressions. These digressions are probably necessary to provide context for the uninitiated, and are frequently told with considerable relish. The trouble in reading the book, however, is that some of the digressions are told with repetition and, to this reviewer anyway, with occasionally undue relish.

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Summary: The best book on contemporary France
Review: Jonathan Fenby's "France on the Brink" is the best overview in English of modern-day France, surpassing even Richard Bernstein's "Fragile Glory" (1990), which also is excellent. As a confirmed Francophile, I found that the book skimps a little on some of the qualities that make the country a great place to visit -- such as its food and wine, its efficient public transportation, its superb museums and historic preservation, the warmth of its people (outside Paris at least!), and the beauty and sheer diversity of its landscapes. On the other hand, the book provides a wealth of detail on some of the country's major ills, above all its increasing xenophobia, uncompetitive industries and corrupt, shoddy politics.

It is in the political arena that Fenby is really in his element, and he has hardly a kind word for any of the men and women who have run France since de Gaulle, most of whom he seems to have met face-to-face as a reporter. In Fenby's portrait, payoffs, favoritism, cronyism, sexual intrigue and even violence seem to be business as usual among France's political class, most of whom seem to be interested more in status and luxurious living than in making the country a better place. Fenby's key point is that it is the politicians rather than their usual scapegoats -- immigrants, foreign influences, or the uniting of Europe -- who deserve most of the blame for pushing the country to "the brink"; yet Fenby is hopeful that France will survive and continue to be both a cultural beacon and a significant player in world affairs.

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Summary: Insanely biased. Parody, and little more.
Review: This book will be of interest only to people who know little or nothing about this country. For the rest of us, Fenby's amazing religious and political bias borders on farce, and the text appears to be simply an extended harangue by someone with a pen who has various axes (yes, axes) to grind. The repeated references to "sober (i.e. good) Protestants" and "corrupt Catholics", and the constant plugging of socialist politics and leftist personalities at the expense of all others becomes extremely annoying -- unless one is a member of the pan-Anglo socialist movement, I believe. As far as the author's descriptions of depressed French villages and towns is concerned, one need only to travel through England's midlands or the U.S.'s rust belt to see considerably more severe examples of the same phenemenon.

As stated by others, the most interesting part of the book is a look at some recent government corruption scandals and political machinations. Unfortunately, the positives here are largely drowned out by the tone of the work; a tone that is really akin to something approaching nagging. Whatever your interest (or dis-interest) in this country, countless better introductions exist to France than this crap.

Rating:
Summary: Can the image of France be more black?
Review: When the book starts with all that's good about France, one gets the uncanny feeling that the rest of the book is going to be extremely critical. And it is true. But the book is very enjoyable, especially for readers interested in contemporary politics. France is indeed a great country with a rich culture and like any other countruy has its own skeletons in its closet. The book indeed provides a deep insight into this. It gives readers a totally new perspective about France. The writer, having lived in France for a long time and having been a political correspondent, writes very autoritatively about France. But one cant help feeling that he is after all an Englisman who is writing about his 'pet-hate'-France, hence the writing would be lop-sided. Well that's what makes it so interesting and spicy. Its a condensed version of france written in a racy tabloid style with real facts. Highly recommended.