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A Year Without "Made in China": One Family (精装)
by Sara Bongiorni
| Market price: ¥ 268.00
MSL price:
¥ 248.00
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 8 items |
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Publishers Weekly, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
Journalist Bongiorni, on a post-Christmas day mired deep in plastic toys and electronics equipment, makes up her mind to live for a year without buying any products made in China, a decision spurred less by notions of idealism or fair trade-though she does note troubling statistics on job loss and trade deficits-than simply "to see if it can be done." In this more personal vein, Bongiorni tells often funny, occasionally humiliating stories centering around her difficulty procuring sneakers, sunglasses, DVD players and toys for two young children and a skeptical husband. With little insight into global economics or China's manufacturing practices, readers may question the point of singling out China when cheap, sweatshop-produced products from other countries are fair game (though Bongiorni cheerfully admits the flaws in her project, she doesn't consider fixing them). Still, Bongiorni is a graceful, self-deprecating writer, and her comic adventures in self-imposed inconvenience cast an interesting sideways glance at the personal effects of globalism, even if it doesn't easily connect to the bigger picture.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Bloomberg News, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
A wry look at the ingenuity it takes to shun the planet's fastest-growing economy. |
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The Telegraph, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
The West's dependence on Chinese exports was neatly summed up. |
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Financial Times, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
What the year-long experiment did achieve, was to switch on Bongiorni as a consumer and make her alive to the complexities and shifting power of the international economy. |
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E. Melendez (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
This is a page turner that will make you laugh and wish your family life was as animated as at the Bongiornis house. Reading this book is like taking the adventure along with them. Sara Bongiorni is a natural-born storyteller. This is an entertaining story about one year in the life of a very amusing family. Whether she's telling you about her fear that a saleswoman will think she is stealing because she leaves a store without buying anything, or the fact that she's jealous of her husbands ability to find non-Chinese products, or her dream about Donald Rumsfeld, Bongiorni's honest storytelling will have you laughing at her somtimes neurotic thinking. This book is not preachy. Bongiorni remains neutral throughout. She lets you draw your own conclusions. She lets us see, through her family, what real American life is like without things made in China. It's nearly impossible at times. Although I had a vague idea many things are made in China, I was shocked and surprised throughout this book at just how much of our lives are affected by China. I now find myself sorting through my own closets and in line at the grocery reading labels and thinking about where things are made. Her book really makes the changing global economy applicable to our everyday lives. These changes aren't just something you read about in the Wall Street Journal. You can see the evidence all over your own house as Bongiorni's book so entertainingly shows us. I bought and read this book at the same time my father was in China for the groundbreaking of his company's third Chinese plant, so the timing of this book really hit home for me. Simply put, read this if you want a smart book that will crack you up. |
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Adamile (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
Wonderfully entertaining and thought-provoking. Even as you get wrapped up in the challenge the author set for herself, you start seeing your own life - and your connection to the world - in illuminating new ways. Highly recommended. |
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Jason Spring (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
This book was a personal account of "one family's journey" into a year of experimenting with the global economy. The book does not pretend to be something it is not, as the cover makes obvious. What keeps the book interesting, aside from the ex-carny husband, is the author's storytelling abilities. She is very honest and open about her dependencies and shortcomings as a consumer. I really enjoyed her reactions and responses to the situations that arose, such as the use of a gift exemption rule as to not offend friends and family, or the way she gave voice to the inner dialog plaguing many people who feel guilty for participating in modern consumer culture. The other reviews complaining about a lack of political content and analysis missed the point and purpose of this book. There is plenty of analysis out there to educate yourself with already. Those books have already been written. I say thank you, Mrs. Sara Bongiorni, for taking a different route and making me stop to think about the depth and nature of my individual, ordinary and personal relationship with China without being redundant and forcing some geo-political ideological jargon down my throat. |
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Kathleen Ryan (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
I really enjoyed this book for what it was. I was very surprised upon seeing other reviews; i thought they would all be 4s and 5s! One person said that 'maybe women enjoy this writing style, but as a guy I don't.' maybe that is true, because i loved it. She does not make any pretense about this being a political statement... it is a memoir! Very enjoyable read. |
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1 Total 1 pages 8 items |
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