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Great one for book clubs!
I bought this as an "airplane read" but couldn't put it down. Geraldine Brooks has done us a great favor by not only illuminating the process of finding one's long lost penpals, but also by educating many folks about Australia in the process. It's fascinating to see her perceptions of the world, and particularly America, based on the letters that come in her...
Publié le Aoû 13 2002 par B. Bauer
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› Voir plus de commentaires 5 étoiles, 4 étoiles |
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Fundamentally just a reporter
I found "Foreign Correspondence" fundamentally unsatisfying despite some entertaining passages and a few clever insights. The journey of self-discovery is too external: for example, why did the author convert to Judaism, outside of her marrying a Jew and having an adolescent romantic crush on anything she viewed as exotic? Brooks structures the book around...
Publié le Janv. 26 1998
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› Voir plus de commentaires 3 étoiles, 2 étoiles, 1 étoiles |
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Not as wonderful as her other books, Nov. 20 2002
I have read several of Brooks' books (both her non-fiction and fiction) and I was excited to rec'e and read Foreign Correspondance. Unfortunately, I was deeply disappointed. The book has an outstanding premise---as a child growing up in Australia during the 1960s, Brooks was eager to experience the outside world. An avid letter writer, she found pen-pals in the U.S., Israel and France. As an adult, Brooks set off to meet and re-discover these people. So far so good. But the book peters out---with the exception of the American pen-pal (to whom she was closest), the characters lack enough detail to be interesting. Her meeting with her French pen-pal was especially disappointing. This was a girl who chose to remain in her native village (while Brooks became a world-traveler and global correspondant). I hoped for more insights and more discussion of the contrast and why they chose such radically different paths---despite coming from somewhat similar backgrounds (Brooks saw herself as living in a giant provincial village---the village of Australia). But there was little discussion and the meeting simply sounded painful. Her trip to Israel to meet her non-Jewish Israeli pen-pal would also have benefitted from a deeper discussion about one's choices and opportunities (there was some discussion of this but I wanted to know more). Had I not read Brooks' other books, I probably would have thought this was a fairly good book. But I know she can write such a better book!
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Great one for book clubs!, Aoû 13 2002
I bought this as an "airplane read" but couldn't put it down. Geraldine Brooks has done us a great favor by not only illuminating the process of finding one's long lost penpals, but also by educating many folks about Australia in the process. It's fascinating to see her perceptions of the world, and particularly America, based on the letters that come in her mailbox each month. While I read this one on my own, I have since leant this book to several friends and we've engaged in some interesting discussions about our own penpal experiences, so I recommend it for book clubs.
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A quest to discover the world as well as discover herself, Sep 16 2001
Australian born Geraldine Brooks spent many years as a foreign correspondent covering the Middle East. I loved her book, "Nine Parts of Desire" which was about Muslim women, and I have followed her life somewhat as she is often mentioned by her husband, Tony Horwitz, in his books "Confederates in the Attic", "Baghdad Without a Map," and "One for the Road." I find her an excellent reporter and in this memoir, "Foreign Correspondence," she turns the spotlight on herself.As a child growing up in a lower middle class neighborhood on a street actually called "Bland Street", she yearned for a larger world. And so she developed pen pals. There was a girl from New Jersey, another one from France, and even one from an upper class neighborhood just a few towns away. And then there were two Israeli boys, one an Arab and one a Jew. As an adult, she found these old letters in her father's basement and, now more than twenty years later, she decided to look up each of these people. What follows is the result of her quest and some wonderful insights into world events from a personal one-on-one perspective. It was fascinating. As a teenager in the early seventies she was aware of the new consciousness developing, even reaching her in her protective Catholic school. She had an active imagination and the gift of using words well. It's not surprising that she developed pen pals and that they influenced her life so much. Her gift of words certainly reached me too. I shared her sense of wonder and enthusiasm as she looked forward to each letter. I felt her straining to break the bonds of her loving but restrictive world. I felt her hopes and dreams and frustrations. And then, later, I shared her discoveries as she searched out the people who had meant so much to her early life. She writes with a clear voice, painting a picture with details, taking me on her quest to discover the world and eventually to discover herself. The book is short, a mere 210 pages but she sure does pack a lot into it. It's a wonderful read. Highly recommended.
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Great book, Aoû 28 2000
I read this book in one day - it is beautifully, intelligently written with well developed characters and a true story that reads like fiction. It is a rare gem of literature that provides insight into the dreams of a young girl that many people can identify with - male or female. I have read a lot of books lately, but this was one of the finest books I've come across in a while.
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More than you would think . . ., Juil 7 2000
Par Un client
I bought this book over a year ago and recently, when I saw it in paperback at my local store, I decided it was time I read it! I don't know why I demurred, because I found this book to be delightful! It is a slight volume that contains more information and humanity than you would think could be printed in these sparse pages. By that I mean we get a memoir spanning the author's family's lives (as well as her own) along with humanizing stories of her global pen pals, including updates. I thought it was quite interesting as a "prologue" to histories of the Middle East and Europe as well as the United States and Down Under. Geraldine Brooks is a good writer who says in a few words what many writers have written chapters about. For instance, "Scientists have discovered that all human beings have a "happiness set point" . . . Thus, the mood-altering effects of winning a Pulitzer or losing a spouse will rarely endure. Within a year, most people are again either the happy or morose persons they always were." And, "I wondered aloud whether our generation really did mark the end of the era when people thought they had to go away to prove themselves." Not to mention a complete description of the anorexia nervosa suffered by one of her pen pals, before anorexia was understood in any way by professionals or lay persons. Highly recommended to all who love an honest and thought-provoking memoir.
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Not Nearly as Controversial as Nine Parts of Desire!, Jui 13 2000
I enjoyed this book very much. You can identify with the small child wishing they were anywhere but where they were. It was interesting, and almost read like fiction at times. You see the viewpoints of a child obsessed as well as an adult resolving and examining her life. I enjoyed the discussion questions at the end of the book and actually thought through them. It almost made me wish I were back in high school English class. Not earthmoving, but a good read and thought provoking.
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A wonderful book!, Mai 29 2000
I, too, am an Australian now living in the USA. I found many parallels between the author and myself. As a child growing up in Sydney, I had many, many penpals from the USA and Europe - I still remember the excitement of receiving letters from places far away (In fact, two of my penpals were at my American wedding and we are still in contact 2 decades later.) The book perfectly captures the essence of growing up in Australia and the sense of isolation one feels being so far from other countries. The author made me truly miss my homeland. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about Australia and what makes its people tick - this book is a wonderful read.
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Foreign Correspondence - an Australian childhood., Mai 21 2000
What does the world look like from a backyard 2000 miles belowthe equator? In Sydney, Australia, Geraldine Brooks grows up longingto find out. This is her memoir of how she did it with a little help from her global pen pals. That's the short of it! The long of it is a lively, humorous ever-so-familiar memoir of a girl's family life in a working-class suburb Down Under during the 1950s & 1960s. Absorbing & thought-provoking. As a life-time pen-pal this book brought back many memories!...
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Thoughts from an expatriate Aussie........., Janv. 26 2000
Par Un client
As a Sydney-born Australian of about Ms Brooks' vintage now living overseas, I enjoyed this book. I - and my father too - enjoyed the weekly columns of Ross Campbell, and I especially longed for the exciting life of the daughters who Campbell wrote about weekly - I felt quite jealous that Ms Brooks actually had Nell (aka Laura and Sonny) as her penfriend! It made me nostalgic for my homeland, where hopefully I'll eventually live again one day! Like a previous reviewer, however, lots in the American version irked me though - those things already mentioned in the previous review - ie, an Australian would never call a cupboard or wardrobe a closet; no way is the country town, Booroowa, situated quite near to our capital, Canberra, in 'The Outback' - you'd have to travel a good deal farther to reach the real outback; and at their father's death, when they scattered his ashes in the Pacific, they also threw three lots of Australian wildflowers: well, two, actually! A protea is a native of South Africa - surely, Ms Brooks, it was the Australian national flower emblem you threw - the waratah? These things did annoy me, but overall I loved the book!
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Wonderful!, Mai 25 1999
Before I begin, I must admit that I live right next door to Geraldine in Virginia. Knowing her as a person probably has colored the way I read her book, but, honestly, I thought the book was wonderful. I read it all in one sitting because I could not put it down. It is interesting to see how writing letters as a child developed into her career, writing from faraway places for newspapers. I highly recommend it.
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Ce produit
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CDN$ 18.95 CDN$ 13.83
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Accueil Amazon
