America Day by Day

Rating:
Summary: America Day by Day
Review: An excellent place to begin seeing America through critical eyes. A companion piece to this is Henry Miller's "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare."

Rating:
Summary: America Day by Day
Review: An excellent place to begin seeing America through critical eyes. A companion piece to this is Henry Miller's "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare."

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable
Review: Before reading it, I was concerned that the writing might be pretentious and annoying. But she essentially came here with an open mind and maintained it throughout her stay. She portrayed 1940's America beautifully.

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Summary: Brainy French existentialist explores 1940s America.
Review: French existentialist, Simone de Beauvoir (1908-86), was both enchanted by and highly critical of life in America. She was comforted by American cemeteries which, she observed, have more personality than some towns, and offer a final escape from the banality of daily life in America (p. 80). Originally published in France as L'AMERIQUE AU JOUR LE JOUR in 1948, AMERICA DAY BY DAY details the four months she spent traveling the United States anonymously (but with a letter of introduction from her companion, Jean-Paul Sartre), from New York to Los Angeles and back, by car, train, and Greyhound bus, while lecturing at colleges and universities along the way. Published in the form of her January 25, 1947 through May 20, 1947 travel journal, AMERICA DAY BY DAY reveals de Beauvoir's fascinating insights into post-war American culture, including its consumerism and "superabundance" ("too much noise, too much perfume, too much heat, too much luxury," p. 118) and obsession with big cars and celebrity, its church services, politics, fashion, movies, and music, and tourist attractions like Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas. "Many things would change among Americans," she writes about American psychoanalysis, "if they were willing to accept that there is unhappiness on earth and that unhappiness is not a priori a crime" (p. 64). Always fiercely independent and intelligent, de Beauvoir also reveals her perspective on American women, black/white relations, intellectuals, education, and college students in her wandering, thought-provoking travel memoir. Highly recommended.

G. Merritt



Rating:
Summary: This time, a frenchWOMAN visits america
Review: I never met Simone but the visit to America that resulted in this book ended the day I was born and we knew people in common, including Nelson Algren. This book is fun. We think of Simone as the woman who initiated the second wave of feminism with her book, "The Second Sex;" as the companion of Jean-Paul Sartre, a man plagued by lobsters and his own sense of self; as the globe-trotting political activist. Some may know her as the author of the frightening novel, "She Came To Stay." The Simone who wrote this book was the best part of Simone de Beauvoir. The book is a snapshot of America, entering the center stage of world power, taken by a native of a country whose time of leadership has passed. It is also the story of a middle-aged woman falling in love. This book was unavailable for many years but it is important both as a view of America in mid-century and as an insight into one of the most important women of the 20th century.

Rating:
Summary: This time, a frenchWOMAN visits america
Review: I never met Simone but the visit to America that resulted in this book ended the day I was born and we knew people in common, including Nelson Algren. This book is fun. We think of Simone as the woman who initiated the second wave of feminism with her book, "The Second Sex;" as the companion of Jean-Paul Sartre, a man plagued by lobsters and his own sense of self; as the globe-trotting political activist. Some may know her as the author of the frightening novel, "She Came To Stay." The Simone who wrote this book was the best part of Simone de Beauvoir. The book is a snapshot of America, entering the center stage of world power, taken by a native of a country whose time of leadership has passed. It is also the story of a middle-aged woman falling in love. This book was unavailable for many years but it is important both as a view of America in mid-century and as an insight into one of the most important women of the 20th century.

Rating:
Summary: God Bless the French
Review: Like de Toqueville before her, Simone de Beauvoir analyzes America, its present state and future promise, as only an outsider can, objectively, without influence or taint from the very values and phenomena under examination. If that makes _America Day by Day_ sound like something other than a travel book, good, because it is much, much more.

It is an insightful essay on the very things that define us as a nation: our optimism, our work ethic, our *color line,* and our politics. Offered to us episodically, in the pages of her travel journal, her thoughts on American society are so accurate and penetrating that her conclusions remain relevant today.

And her main conclusion is this: "...America is one of the pivotal points of the world, where the future of man is being played out. To 'like' America, to 'dislike' it -- these words have no meaning. It is a battlefield, and you can only become passionate about the battle it is waging with itself, in which stakes are beyond measure." Everyone should read this book to discover why we are a "pivotal point" and what that means for us and the rest of the nations of the world.