3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Halfway Relevant, May 21, 2011
This review is from: A Broad Abroad: The Expat Wife's Guide to Successful Living Abroad (Paperback)
If you're an expat wife from the US, Canada or England whose husband's company is sending him on assignment to a metropolitan area where he will be a mid-to-high level representative, or is a diplomat (of some stripe!) and you will be making the same wage (or possibly adjusted up!) for the assignment: this book is for you.
If you're an expat wife whose husband has picked up either a freelance job overseas in developed country like America, Canada or the UK, will be on the lower end of the totem pole, you'll be making local wage, or not in a metro: pick it up from your library instead.
Much of the advice here is targeted towards women with children whose husbands will make the same wage at home, and advice about taking time for yourself is important - but for spouses like myself who live on local wage over 6 hours away from a local metropolitan area, and have no children, this book is significantly less relevant. It's a useful overview of the sorts of experiences an expat wife may face, but everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt - they simply aren't viable, or reasonable expectations, for everyone going abroad. If I had one of the maids that the author portrays as nearly-necessary and utterly pervasive, my husband and I would be shelling out nearly 1/3 of his monthly salary to pay wages for someone else.
A book about the culture of your new host country, combined with a book on cultural adjustment and relocation, would stand you in equal stead with this text - and be significantly more specific. Pascoe does a disservice to the reader in her generalization to meet all readers; it is also focused towards individuals moving from the West, rather than an individual coming from a developing country (where they may very well speak English as one of the official languages) to one of the major developed nations.
In sum: Good one-time read, great for borrowing from the library, but the information in it is rather targeted and much of it may be irrelevant for your situation.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything Robin Writes is 5-Stars!, September 10, 2009
This review is from: A Broad Abroad: The Expat Wife's Guide to Successful Living Abroad (Paperback)
If I've said it once, I've said to every expat I know--Buy the Expat Expert's books!
When this book was originally written, the word 'expatriate' was not even in my vocabulary. After having spent nearly half of my life outside my native country, I'm so thankful to Robin Pascoe for putting this book back in print. It's full of timeless advice that trailing wives, expat mothers, and global broads everywhere will take to heart for years to come.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Only for a certain kind of expat, October 6, 2011
I'm under 30 and married with no kids, and I found this book to be geared towards women who are traveling with a successful husband. There are chapters on dealing with nannies and maids... I just skipped them. Also, there seemed to be negativity or bitterness throughout as if writing the book just reminded her of the hardships of going abroad. If you're already nervous this book won't help that, but will point you to some other books and websites that are useful...
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