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140 of 144 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Consumerist lifestyle, far removed from my reality, April 26, 2006
Mary Carlomagno's book seemed like a great idea - assessing the waste in our lives, learning to be happy with the simpler things, slowing down, living purposefully and not buying into the stampede for the latest style and technology.
This lightweight book did touch on some soulsearching, but when each month was over, she gleefully returned to each of her vices. I didn't expect her to give up her cell phone forever, but I don't really see the purpose of giving up alcohol or mega-shopping only for a month. The author had piles of clothes in her closet with the tags still on them, and fancy books she bought only because they look good on her bookshelf. She has bought into the commercialization of Christmas, with long lists of gifts to buy with a click of a mouse and frantic re-gifting...totally missing the point that Christmas isn't about gifts in the first place.
She and her friends meet for binge drinking on a regular basis, gossiping and getting sloshed in public. To avoid social ostracism, she feebly explains to these friends that her "one month only" ban on alcohol is just for research purposes.
Overall she comes across as a shallow and appearance-conscious young woman who flirts briefly with real lifestyle changes in order to write a book.
The only part of the book I really connected with was her month of not eating out. I liked the way she applied herself to learning to make wholesome homemade food, and honoring traditional family recipes. In a fast food nation, more of us need to do this very thing. As I read this chapter, I kept thinking, "instead of moaning over not being able to join friends at a restaurant, why not invite them over and cook a great meal for them?"
I'm continuing in my search for a book written by someone who gives up coffee or turns off the TV forever, and sees it as a positive move.
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96 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I wanted to like this book, I truly did, April 29, 2006
I pictured myself standing on the sidelines cheering for this woman's conscious choices, and being impressed by the self-knowledge that resulted from her thoughtful experiences.
Instead, I discovered a spoiled consumer who, try as I might, I could not like. She came across as arrogant and not the least bit introspective or serious. After reading this book, I believed she cooked the whole thing up as a flimsy excuse to write a book. I did not believe for a minute that she had made any long term changes in her life as a result of her experiences.
Through each of her months of self-delial, she takes her friends and family on a trip that I'm sure they'd just as soon skip. Cancelling dinner dates because she couldn't have a cocktail? And the inconvenience she put her friends through during the month she gave up her cell phone is not to be believed. It's a wonder she has any friends left. "Hey, c'mon, guys, I have a CHAPTER to write here -- just hang in there!"
I would have been more impressed if she'd thought out each item carefully, and done some true introspection: "What makes sense here? What am I truly trying to accomplish? How could my life change for the better as a result of my doing this?"
I could have forgiven even all of that if she had been a good writer. In the hands of a competent writer, each of her chapters could have been hilarious, even in their shallowness. But she denies us even that.
Skip this book. I'm sending mine back.
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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
SHE'S THE NEXT ANNE FRANK!, January 18, 2007
The author means well, but her definition of "sacrifice" is questionable. She's not giving up food or running water or her ability to flush the toilet after 8 PM...she's giving up chocolate and elevators and curse words. CURSE WORDS! Her intention is commendable, but to call these acts 'sacrifice" just reminds us how excessive our society really is.
But let me be clear: I'm not saying that suffering=sacrifice; her attempt to say no to things like excessive shopping and television is a good start. But like an actress rehearsing a role, she only skims the surface, only visits the new lifestyle without any real attempt to make a permanent change in her life. When she talks about her month without alcohol, for example, she goes on about what it felt like being LEFT OUT of her drinking circle and less about her new found self-awareness. It had the "whoa is me" tone that you'd expect from a rich girl on her 16th birthday when she expects a brand new BMW but gets a Toyota Camry instead. The idea is a good one, but it gets lost in the message of "this is how upper-middle class Americans define sacrifice". And that, if only accidentally, becomes the book's theme.
Or the other classic--when she gives up her cell phone for a month. Her CELL phone! She can use all other phones, the phone at home, phones at work. This becomes more about being inconvenienced and less about 'giving something up'. To add insult to injury, she even excuses herself enough to borrow her HUSBAND'S cell phone...an item that many of us didn't even HAVE ten years ago. And again, she writes a whole chapter where she feels great pride about her new found self-control. How did she DO it?
I go back to the actress analogy--she wants to visit change without really changing. I would have been impressed if she had discovered more, if her experiment had opened more doors of self-awareness than it did. By the end I thought she might give away half her things to the poor and find herself a lot happier, etc, etc. But it came off more like an essay of "what I did this summer". The book's title sounded like it brought more to the table than that.
It's like the guy sitting at a cafe in downtown Paris--he may feel like a traveler, but he's definitely a tourist.
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