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eBook Almost a Foreign Country: A Personal Geography in Columns and Aphorisms download

by Manfred Wolf

ISBN: 0595524230
Author: Manfred Wolf
Publisher: iUniverse (December 3, 2008)
Language: English
Pages: 376
ePub: 1218 kb
Fb2: 1836 kb
Rating: 4.7
Other formats: mbr mobi rtf doc
Category: Different
Subcategory: Humanities

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Manfred Wolf is a university professor, columnist, translator, and freelance writer, and the author of Almost a Foreign Country: A Personal Geography in Columns and Aphorisms. His work has appeared in many European and American publications. He lives in San Francisco. Paperback: 286 pages. Publisher: iUniverse (April 10, 2014).

Almost a Foreign Country : A Personal Geography in Columns and Aphorisms. Is it time to negotiate with bin Laden? Is lying about sex ever-or perhaps often-a good idea? To what extent do religion and culture shape the ways in which we communicate? What is the mysterious syndrome called CHOIS, with which many long-time pessimists suddenly find themselves diagnosed? Delve into this intriguing collection to find out the answers to these questions, and many more.

I received this book from my mother who immigrated from The Netherlands in 1957. Coming from a person who doesn't love to read, it was given to me with an amazing amount of encouragement and excitement

Almost a Foreign Country: A Personal Geography in Columns and Aphorisms. ISBN 13: 9780595524235.

Discover Book Depository's huge selection of Manfred Wolf books online. Personal Development. Survival in Paradise. Almost a Foreign Country. Free delivery worldwide on over 20 million titles. Science & Geography. Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror. Society & Social Sciences.

The book’s title refers to the predicament that elders often discover as they age–that the world is the same yet changed, taking on the strangeness of a foreign country. It’s with his tales of foreign experiences and observances that Wolf shines. From discussing the quiet success of Muslim women in Western Europe, to the fact that drug dealers are allowed to deduct firearms and pit bulls as business expenses in the Netherlands, the author engages readers with interesting points

Christa Wolf, German novelist, essayist, and screenwriter most often associated with East Germany. This work explores the political and romantic conflicts of Rita and Manfred

Christa Wolf, German novelist, essayist, and screenwriter most often associated with East Germany. Wolf was reared in a middle-class, pro-Nazi family. With the defeat of Germany in 1945, she moved with her family to East Germany. This work explores the political and romantic conflicts of Rita and Manfred. He defects to West Berlin for greater personal and professional freedom, and she, after a brief stay with him, rejects the West and returns to East Berlin. The novel brought Wolf political favour.

Is it time to negotiate with bin Laden? Is lying about sex ever-or perhaps often-a good idea? To what extent do religion and culture shape the ways in which we communicate? What is the mysterious syndrome called CHOIS, with which many long-time pessimists suddenly find themselves diagnosed? Delve into this intriguing collection to find out the answers to these questions, and many more.In Almost a Foreign Country, a collection of columns, articles and aphorisms, Manfred Wolf brings his unique perspective to bear on a broad range of aspects characterizing our current reality and the way we live now. From love and the relationships between men and women to time and aging, from current political and social issues to the ever-changing face of language-Wolf tackles them all, often combining humor with a sharp, somber perception of the issues that concern us all. His point of view is always unflinching, original, and unapologetic.Manfred Wolf is a university professor, a widely published writer and a world traveler who has spent time in several very different cultures. Almost a Foreign Country provides its readers the unique opportunity to spend some time in his company and enjoy the many pleasures of his experience, wit, and always fascinating opinions.

Comments: (7)

6snake6

I've been reading Manfred Wolf's columns with great interest for years and am delighted to see many of them collected in this volume, "Almost a Foreign Country." I've shared the book with several friends, and we've all found the columns thought-provoking, entertaining, and great taking-off points for discussion. Wolf's own aphorisms also provide a daily source of wit and wisdom or even provocation because we don't always agree with them -- and I for one am stimulated to "talk back" to the author.
The book's subtitle is "A Personal Geography in Columns and Aphorisms," and it's a pleasure to experience that geography---The Netherlands, Finland, Curacao, the US, specifically San Francisco, among other places---with a writer and thinker whose insights speak to universal concerns.

Dranar

I recently checked the usage of the phrase "political correctness" in Google's fascinating statistical application, Ngram [at books.google.com/ngrams]. The phrase's frequency in print began climbing sharply in 1988, peaked 10 years later, and has been in gradual decline ever since. But while the term "political correctness" may be waning, its implication is as true as ever: that fashion governs the world of ideas as much as it does hairstyles and hemlines.

The dicates of fashion (I'd say "political correctness" but, as we discovered, the term itself is becoming incorrect) function like filters within the world of ideas. Certain notions and beliefs are easily accepted, while others are rejected out of hand.

Manfred Wolf is keenly attuned to the effects of these filters on our opinions and judgments. The columns and articles in this collection, spanning more than 30 years, reflect on society's trends and shifting dispositions: the Men's Movement (think hairy-chested guys drumming passionately in the forest); the evolving meaning of freedom (to smoke, or to not be subjected to other's smoke); the infusion of psychological catchphrases into our speech (the "inner child", "allowing time to grieve", "a dysfunctional family"); our nonstandard usage of "Standard English" ("and I was, like, ..."); or the super-patriotism and hero inflation that emerged in the months after 9/11.

Wolf helps us question what we might simply assume to be true: Does grief counseling really assuage the pain, or does it merely substitute "professional glibness for ordinary emotion"? In social settings, are Americans too ready to smile and nod, rather than do the work of close listening? Is lying about sex a good thing? The answers--his or yours--matter less than the questions themselves.

We like to think our ideas are our own. But on that score, we deceive ourselves far more than we realize. We unthinkingly adopt in order to adapt, accept in order to be accepted. For that reason, we need writers like Wolf. We need articulate observers who can stand with one foot in and one foot outside the fast stream of culture: sensitive to the onrushing current but not about to be swept away by it.

Kelerana

Witty and fresh, these essays perspicaciously explore the human condition. Indeed, as Terence noted, "nothing human is foreign to me," yet these essays point out what curious creatures we are, justifying Pope's summation of our species as "the glory, jest, and riddle of the world." Herein is the mirror held up to a broad range of human experience -- from our romances to, on a macro-scale, global politics -- all with penetrating insight and memorable anecdotes and an aphoristic quality. A superb contribution to the essay genre that astonishes, enlightens, and delights.

Blackworm

Adults, approaching or having long departed middle age will enjoy Manfred Wolf's book since this stage in life is when we begin to feel like the world, the tech, the culture is changing so fast that it seems like a foreign country has just sprung up around us-- when we weren't looking.
Some of the chapters are poignant and introspective others are LOL funny

Rrd

I'm the author -- I think it has been a bit undervalued, overlooked. Of course I'm biased, but see for yourself!
MW

Nagor

Pleasant to read. Less substantial than I hoped. I'd recommend it to others who read his work. I wish the essays were longer and more fully developed.

Tholmeena

Manfred Wolf has put together "the best that has been thought and said" by Wolf himself over many decades of column-writing here and abroad. And what a rich generous storehouse it is! Wolf finds the human comedy endlessly absorbing--observes human foibles with charity (except when he's gnashing his teeth)--and argues clearly without pontificating. The unity of this compilation derives from the fact that Wolf soon becomes the Hero, a wholly original central character. The motif is "estrangement" from ANY familiar world, which allows him to observe everything from love to politics to literature to the Holocaust with a fresh eye. Here is another fable of America, then, as seen by another wise foreign-born writer (Nabokov comes to mind) whose love for his adopted country is coupled with keen-witted irony and a total absence of sentimental cant. A new reader should begin with Wolf's own introduction, then plunge into any of the 14 sections, each of which concludes with a set of aphorisms. Don't miss the wonderful reflections on aging! A few individual pieces here may be repetitive, but many more, like the brilliant "Abstract Meditation on Conspiracy Theories" would benefit by being explored at book length.

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