Customer Reviews

Uruguay (Cultures of the World)

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I awaited the publication of this book with much anticipation. I am Uruguayan and when my American friends ask me about my country I am always delighted to talk about it and tell them about the books on Uruguay that are available in English.

When I read this book I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It is full of mistakes of every kind. Some are obvious typographical errors, some are misspellings (words given in Spanish are misspelled, misinterpreted, or mistranslated). There are cases of photographs that have the wrong caption. There are contradictions in the text. Some historical facts are wrong. There are gross misrepresentations of what Uruguay is about. The names of people, animals, places, and things are wrong in many instances. There are some important omissions. The two recipes given at the end are simply laughable. The bibliography given is extremely scant. The book is full of blunders ("disparates," "ridiculeces," "barbaridades," "barrabasadas," and plain old "bolazos," as we say in Uruguay) that detract from otherwise well written and informative segments.

This book so disappointed me that I cannot possibly recommend it to anybody. If anyone wants to know something about Uruguay I suggest you ignore this book. I would recommend (in chronological order): Marion Morrison's "Uruguay (Enchantment of the World)" (1992); Nathan Haverstock's "Uruguay in Pictures (Visual Geography Series)" (1987); Allan Carpenter's "Uruguay (Enchantment of South America)" (1969); and Lavinia Dobler's "The Land and People of Uruguay" (1965). None of these books is perfect. They all contain some mistakes, but the information in them is, for the most part, accurate. The Morrison and the Haverstock books are still available. The two older titles are occasionally available as used books.

One title that I highly recommend is Tessa Bridal's "The Tree of Red Stars." It is a novel that takes place in Uruguay. (It is not intended for children.) The author is Uruguayan, so she knows what she is saying when she writes about Uruguay. Bridal's book contains the best depiction of life in Uruguay I have ever read in English.

I am Uruguayan, and I bought this "piece of thing" to give it as a present to one of my friends, I didn't know what I was buying but lies, and uncertain things. Starting; some of the education facts are wrong, then with the society and lifestyles, Uruguay is the only, ONLY country in the world where I've seen that blacks, mestizos, european descendants and others can sit and dialogue for ever racism doesn't exsist at all. more than 50% of women in uruguay are professionals. Families don't choose to send the boys to get schooling more than the girls, that's not true!

Then in the "Return to Democracy" the last paragraph is just a whole lie, I don't know who would write all that.

Then the Language section is just another piece of SH-IT, if this writer would know a little more about the Spanish spoken in Uruguay, I believe the "A simple guide to Spanish pronounciation" on page 82 and 83 wouldn't appear like that. Uruguayans pronounce the "Ll" as "zh" or "sh" when it has a vowel after it, the same sound the "Y" has when it's followed by a vowel. I think she has a very big confusion, because not even Spanish people pronounce some letters like that, maybe when she was pasting the pages together they got mixed up and put this two pages in this book, instead of putting it in the Mexican book of cultures of the world, or should we call it "Cultures of Leslie Jermyn's head," I think the author didn't get the right information, Why you didn't ask the Uruguayan goverment for some help? 'cause Robert Buckman, Elizabeth Coastworth, John Fisher, Rex A. Hudson, Marrion Morrison, Richard Tames and the other authors you list in your Bibliography are not Uruguayans, and I bet they haven't gone there, and if they have, they've gone somewhere else confusing that place with uruguay, like what "happened" to Italian immigrants in the 19th Century when they confused Uruguay for Argentina and vice-versa. Maybe they went to some Island in the Caribbean, or to the coast of South-Africa. I think this book is a BIG BOLASO, DON'T BUY a PIeCE OF PAPER LIKE THIS ONE, GET THE "MI TIERRA URUGUAY" OR "MI HISTORIA URUGUAY" TRUE BOOKS ABOUT URUGUAYAN SOCIETY, GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, CULTURE, VALUES, LANGUAGE, GOVERNMENT, etc...

This a a book of breath but no particular depth. It is written in a prose that is slightly stiff,but it is filled with facts that the casual tourist may find useful.

I read a review on this page and bought every book that was available. I disagree that the other books are any better, and I also disagree this book is full of innacuracies. There might be some. I did not see any. Perhaps others are so biases toward this beautiful little country that they cannot accept seeing a car with a little rust in page 63. Every page and picture (and there are tons of them) reminds me of all the color and character of my dear Uruguay. This book is a great book to have at home.