Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed-at best, disgusted at worst, October 31, 2003
I was very disappointed by this book. I had read the whole book because I kept thinking eventually she would find some bit of understanding about the host culture or some revalation about humanity, but I don't think she ever thought about anyone but herself and her friend on the other side. In the early stages of the book Ms. Maguire (publishing name) decided that she would write a book based on the e-mails from a friend who answered her call for help. From that point on she decided not to understand anything about Japan (i.e. misspelling names of places, not even taking the time to understand or learn about the strange things she saw). She called the US the "real world." Instead of coming to learn how to accept and understand the host culture, Ms. Maguire draws herself into a coccon which centers around herself and her computer and shuts her eyes to all else, calling it either stupid or inconveinent.
There was a point where she could have sought enlightenment when a person told her she was "needy," but that never panned out. For anyone who is looking for information or stories about living as an expatriate, this serves only as a bad example of how one does not thrive in a foreign land. I would highly suggest the following books if you are looking for more than just personal sob stories: The Expert Expatriate (it should be called the expatriate's bible, highly reccomended)
Culture Shock: The Wife's Gudie (and other books by the author, Robin Pascoe)
Books related to intercultural communications
Third Culture Kids I have lived in Japan, the US, Switzerland, Germany and Singapore. I speak fluently three langauges, even though I am profoundly hearing impared (Japanese being one of them). To live abroad is an excellent chance to learn more about and understand the world (even is it is not on your list of things you would like to do). Please refer to the list above for suitable reading material that will prepare you for your move, be it the first or 50th time. Abroad, careful preparation and information is your best friend. If you want to know how to make the worst of an international move, you couldn't have found a better book than Ms. Maguire's.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
No. Just no., May 6, 2004
By A Customer
As a fellow expatriate, I was ashamed to think that this is how people will see our world. Japan indeed is foreign, and I understand how the woman feels about being isolated. But the way to end the isolation where she is was to use the Internet time she had to look for information in her area. Getting out of her apartment, meeting people where she was and trying to understand the local customs goes a long way toward understanding and adjusting to a new place. Reaching out through email is great--I do it often--but a constant stream of whining does no one any good. This was a book that was a good idea spoiled. And if she thinks Japan is rough, heaven help her if she ended up in a real hardship post. This was a silly, slight book.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The true friend every human being deserves, May 12, 2003
From her apartment in Yokohama, Japan - isolated by barriers of language both written and spoken, with only her husband to talk to although surrounded by millions in the world's largest city - Margie Tovrea sends out a cry for help over the Internet. From her home near Houston, Texas, Sandy Davis answers that cry. This story of an expatriate wife, who follows her husband while his job assignments take him from foreign country to foreign country (as well as all over the United States), could not have been written in an earlier era even though Americans have been living and working overseas for as long as this country has existed. What makes Margie's Japan experience (and therefore, this book) unique is the immediacy of her correspondence with her friend Sandy, who has more than an inkling about what Margie is going through because Sandy's husband is in the same business. In fact, the two women met while both were living in a Western employees' compound in Saudi Arabia, when their husbands had earlier assignments there. Sandy becomes Margie's lifeline, offering an almost daily window into The Real World. Where one can buy food that looks and tastes familiar, and has readable labels. Where the tradespeople with whom a woman must deal treat her as a valued customer, instead of as an intruder whose presence in their country gives constant offense. Where there are books to read and people to talk to, and where the bills she must pay make sense - as do the operating instructions on her household appliances! Being an expatriate wife isn't new to Margie, but living in a land where she feels completely unwelcome and where there are absolutely no other Western residents within reach is something she never imagined before experiencing it. Sandy, the true friend every human being deserves but may not be fortunate enough to find, experiences it right along with her. Gladly and lovingly, responding to Margie's e-mails with messages that make one thing plain to any reader who ever had a close friend: the woman in Texas is drawing just as much emotional sustenance, and is learning just as many lessons from their correspondence, as the one in Japan. You'll learn a lot about the Far East by reading EMails From the Edge. You'll also learn what life is like for U.S. workers abroad on more typical assignments, and for the families who follow them. But what you will remember about this book, and would not find in any more conventional "travel story," is the friendship that prompted its e-mails. Highly recommended!
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