Customer Reviews

Diplomatic Baggage

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Funny & hilarious writing. Basically the postings are presented in a chronological manner, but at times the author jumps to describe something happened in another posting which is a bit confusing.

In the first chapter, the author shows that a diplomat wife's life is not as glamorous & "prestigious" as the general public would think. I can understand the depressed feeling brought by the cycle of loneliness, homesickness, language barrier, making new friends, getting used to a place and then leaving local friends for the next posting.

But reading on, you'll find that actually she's not THAT miserable & bored, as she'd made lots of new friends in all postings, gone to & organized dinner parties, initiated a project in saving rundown historical buildings, organized fund raising campaigns, written a few books and a newspaper column, had weekend excursions to archaeological sites & interesting places, and even designed her own pattern of dyed cloth to sell!

Which made the first chapter quite odd. By her feelings & behaviour (eg crying all day, having argument with her diplomatic husband), you would think she's a young & immature girl just married to a diplomat sent to Almaty. But NO! This is in fact the then current posting after nearly 30 yrs of overseas postings. So why did she still feel so miserable & sad? It's hard for the reader to reconcile this with such an experienced "trailing spouse".

While seemingly self-deprecating, this author manages to insult every culture other than her own and paint a very clear picture of herself as a spoiled, prejudiced, ignorant woman.

The flagrant anti-Semitism is the worst aspect of the book, so prevalent I didn't want to finish except to see whether she'd redeem herself at all (nope), but all the troubles-with-the-incompetent-help anecdotes paint a very clear picture of an anachronistic, selfish woman who should definitely have stuck to her shopping.

The worst story of all: the day a woman flagged her car down because her husband was dying of a heart attack, and the author didn't take him to the hospital because his nose was running and that disgusted her.

The positive reviews excerpted in the book are all quotes from her friends and social circle who should have read it first. In sum: not worth the 1-cent used-book price.

Being a diplomatic spouse myself, I really enjoyed this book and could relate to many of the feelings she had and many of the experiences. It is her memoir and she is clearly an intelligent woman and entitled to her opinions but I found the tone and some of her political comments particularly galling. Politics aside, it was a fun read.

I was living overseas with my husband when I found this book. So, I was very excited to read something that was relevant to my own experience -- and maybe have a good laugh. Looking back, I kick myself for spending money on this book (especially the premium price charged for English language books in the country I was living). The author's observations and jokes are not only boring, but just plain dumb. After the story about trying to hire servants in India and discovering that one of the candidates had six fingers on one hand, which would make finding white gloves for him exceedingly difficult, I should have stopped reading. I kept thinking, "You lived in all of these wonderful, exciting places, and THIS is what you took away from the experience?!" Unfortunately, I chose to finish the book. It only got worse. Save yourself the pain.

It is rare for a writer to be very sensitive to naunces of different cultures. This book is one of those rare gems.

As a European Commission diplomat's wife, the author Brigid, dutifully fulfils her role as gracious hostess, interprid traveller, cultural restorer, humanitarian doer, tireless mother coping with young children who grow up to be rebellious teenage daughters.

She is a multi-faceted character bursting with energy and enthusiasm. Her rich experiences make the book a gripping travelogue as she moves across continents from Europe, to Africa, to the Caribbean and to Central Asia.

She is able to laugh at herself unconsciously when there is a diplomatic faux pas or cultural hiccup along the way. She does not demean anyone she meets. She is truly a first rate diplomat herself.

Extremely readable!

This book is entertaining, informative and holds your attention in a very 'friendly' sort of way.
We all have encountered those 'interesting people' who aren't quite daft, but in spite of a good education, do exhibit the occasional spell of battiness. This is the character of this book.

You are intrigued by her path into the mysterious 'foreign service', and titillated by macabre, hilarious and decidedly 'wierd' tales from places in the world most of us will never visit. However, she does pair those stories with insights into a person who is both helpful to others, and a dingbat.

There are some very 'human' moments in marriage and parenting that some of us would rather not be reminded of...but these stories do ground the book and let you know that the author is both an average person, as well as an adventurous (and batty) one. She could be one of us.

A good read for a break between your thriller novels and steamy ones.

I lived overseas for 10 years and my husband saw this book on his co-workers desk and brought it home for me to read. It's made me cry and laugh as I read about their wacky adventures in foreign lands. I love this book. I could totally relate since I've had many of the same experiences. Very well written.

I find the book has many laughs but it is also very annoying in its seemingly off-the-cuff political remarks. George Bush is of course the devil and Keenan never misses an opportunity to tell us how pro-Palestinian she is while displaying a very unappealing, old-fashioned, old school British (even though she says she's Irish) anti-Semitism. She loves Syria and disses "Jewish moneylenders." The fact that the fab crowd of England are used profusely in the blurbs to sell the book and their consensus is not only is this book hilarious, but also important, makes me think this smug silly attitude is acceptable in those circles. Makes one pause....

I loathed this book. I loathed this book so much that I binned it in the subway - with 20 minutes left to go in my journey.

It is a tale of a privileged Sloane Ranger 'trailing spouse' following her husband around various diplomatic postings. With a large income, plenty of idle time and the chance to explore highly varied cultures, the life of a trailing spouse should make a pretty interesting read. Instead, the reader gets page after page of whinging, loathing and misery. Enraged at the author's haughty tone and bleak portrait of life in Central Asia, I could feel my blood pressure rising in the subway. At the interchange, I shocked fellow travellers by loudly thumping it in the bin and storming away... to make the most of my day.

As a Trailing Spouse to Egypt, this was a book recommended at an Inter-cultural training session that I attended.

I am glad I waited 2 years to read this book (I might have been terrified of the move) although I'm kicking myself for spending money on it, even though I got it at a discounted price on Amazon.

Why did I hate the book so much?

Except for the last chapter, the author was constantly whining and groaning about the hardships that life had tossed at her. This after choosing to marry her husband of her own free will, knowing the kind of job he did and loved that it would take him to obtuse corners of the world. It was a fully informed decision that she took. Even spending some days with him, in what she calls a "chicken shed" in Kathmandu before deciding to marry him.

She constantly whines about everything from the help, to the kids, to her husband, to location.... in short, she whines about -Everything.

The life of a Diplomatic Trailing Spouse is much easier than that of other Trailing Spouses. Accommodation, household help, office help, everything is put in place before the diplomatic family even arrives at their new location. Brigid's grouse is that some of the other European embassies provide more services to the spouses than her husband's European Commission ambassadors office does.

She promotes herself as a glamorous, successful young London fashion journalist, but later in the book accepts and acknowledges that her children were the worst dressed in their school.

I do not know Brigid personally, but what I read in this autobiography of hers, made me think of her as a spoiled, over indulged wife who can never find anything positive and good in life.

Granted she had a few scares like the maggots that got under the skin and had to mature and grow and eat their way out, but those kind of experiences were less than you could count on one hand. For the most part, she was preoccupied with how to find white gloves for a 6 fingered servant in India and wondering why there was no association to put beggars to sleep the way Animal friends do it for animals! At the same time brushing aside her daughters experiences with pedophiles and exposers as casual asides.

Brigid has written about Kashmir's art and crafts and co authored a book on Damascus; which may be worth looking at, but Diplomatic Baggage is not a book you want to buy or gift a friend who is going to be a Trailing Spouse, not unless you want them to cancel all plans and send their spouse to live abroad on their own.