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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading, but gets tied up in a knot or two, October 22, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: France On the Brink (Hardcover)
Fenby clearly loves France (don't we all?) and appreciates the way it combines the wonderful with the maddening, the rational with the irrational, the generous with the selfish. Whether he or the publishers are right to suggest that France is "on the brink" of some serious crisis is, however, another matter. Living in Germany and traveling frequently to France, I get the impression France is increasingly in better shape than its neighbor. Many French have a problem with globalization (Americanization?), but in lots of ways the country is much more modern and sprightly than its European neighbors. So the book rather overstates its central argument. Its strongest points are its detailed accounts of the political, financial and business scandals of the Mitterrand years - quite staggering, when you come to think of them. The book's weakness is that it drifts too much into a blow-by-blow account of recent high politics in Paris, most of which won't be of any lasting concern even to the French themselves. Earlier reviewers who accuse Fenby of having anti-this and anti-that axes to grind are being unfair - overall, he gets the balance right.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A perceptive and extraordinary book, September 26, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: France On the Brink (Hardcover)
As an American who speaks French and who has friends all around that wonderful country, I found this book to be perceptive and important. While it is true that one can easily catalog problems in any country, I think that the importance of France on the world stage demanded that this book be written. Critical to Fenby's thinking is his idea that the leadership in France is more and more inbred and separated from the people. The system allows for immense concentrations of power without effective checks and balances. The resulting lack of "tranparence" in fiscal and political matters should really be quite appalling to the French population. Unlike the previous reviewer, I find a sense of malaise in many of my friends and acquaintances there and a special sense of unhappiness among the unemployed and underemployed, especially among the young. I do see France as being "on the brink" in the sense that it has fundamental decisions to make about how it will govern itself (increasing accountability versus perpetuation of "une classe politique"), how it will manage its economic system (creation of real jobs versus quaint solutions such as the 35 hour work week), and how it will truly integrate the large number of people who are on the outside looking in. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in some of the problems and promises of contemporary France.
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best book on contemporary France, February 15, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: France On the Brink (Hardcover)
Jonathan Fenby's "France on the Brink" is the best overview in English of modern-day France, surpassing even Richard Bernstein's "Fragile Glory" (1990), which also is excellent. As a confirmed Francophile, I found that the book skimps a little on some of the qualities that make the country a great place to visit -- such as its food and wine, its efficient public transportation, its superb museums and historic preservation, the warmth of its people (outside Paris at least!), and the beauty and sheer diversity of its landscapes. On the other hand, the book provides a wealth of detail on some of the country's major ills, above all its increasing xenophobia, uncompetitive industries and corrupt, shoddy politics. It is in the political arena that Fenby is really in his element, and he has hardly a kind word for any of the men and women who have run France since de Gaulle, most of whom he seems to have met face-to-face as a reporter. In Fenby's portrait, payoffs, favoritism, cronyism, sexual intrigue and even violence seem to be business as usual among France's political class, most of whom seem to be interested more in status and luxurious living than in making the country a better place. Fenby's key point is that it is the politicians rather than their usual scapegoats -- immigrants, foreign influences, or the uniting of Europe -- who deserve most of the blame for pushing the country to "the brink"; yet Fenby is hopeful that France will survive and continue to be both a cultural beacon and a significant player in world affairs.
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