Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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62 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Infuriating, 6 April 2008
This book will drive you mad. At times insiteful, interesting, well written and intriguing but then at other times so poorly written, dull, badly researched and infuriating.
The central idea, that materialism is having a very poor effect on our well-being is great and when he is trying to prove this Oliver James is spot on. Where the book falls down is in his "style" (drifting into wholly inappropriate lingo at times; so he "scores" a cup of coffee rather than simply buy one or comments on people in a pretentious hey look at me and my cool friends/lifestyle way) and some of the content (countless interviews with people he likes and thinks are well balanced, they are of course not virus infected and countless interviews with emotionally damaged / people he doesn't like so much- they are of course virus infected).
As for his final "cure" it's so outlandish and out there in cloud cuckooland as a practical solution that you simply despair.
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81 of 93 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Ladies, stay home, 12 Feb 2008
This book is about the alleged evils of a virus called "affluenza" and how it can be cured. According to the author, the English speaking world is swept by this terrible virus. The most infected are also the most affluent. It is a relief to think that the richer you are the more likely you will be to catch this horrible virus. I am in no danger whatsoever and from the first lines, I am starting to think that I might have made a mistake buying this book. The impression is confirmed by reading on the first chapter, where we are told the tale of an incredibly obnoxious multi-billionaire, who is always dissatisfied with his life and that of a poor taxi driver, illegal alien, married with kids, who would not swap place wit the billionaire, because his life is so happy.
It sounds incredibly corny and it is. The rest of book is divided in chapters which follow the same structure: interviews with obnoxious people, all rich, young an beautiful but fatally infected by "affluenza" and then the odd one out, the guy (or gal) who should also been infected but isn't. You may wonder why, and the answer is because of mummy. It turns out that the epidemic of "affluenza" is mainly caused by the fact that women nowadays receive an education and want to work. Once they start working, they become so selfish as to want to spend all their money to buy useless things, like cosmetics, handbags and larger breasts, rather than aiming at getting married and having children. If they would just stay home and take care of their kids, there would be no problem at all.
Here the author goes out of his way to prove that children with working mothers are nothing short of sociopaths. Of course we cannot but agree, just thinking about the good old days when women used to stay at home all the time. War was something totally unheard of and the whole world population was so much happier: think about the Middle Ages, the witches burnt at stakes, the genocide of entire civilizations....
To make matters worse, the author also likes to point out how privileged and upper-class his life is. Unfortunately, I do not care in the least if he is used to drinking tea with the queen and going skiing with the king of Siam. I was expecting a serious piece of work about real situations and I found a book about a world that is as foreign to me as Mars, populated by super-achievers perennially depressed, despite the huge amounts of money they make. To conclude, if you want some answers about the problems of life, read some philosophical essays, if you have too much money and are very unhappy get yourself to a shrink, but do not waste your precious money to buy this book. My copy ended straight into the trash and it was the best moment, since the day I started reading it.
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143 of 165 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointment, 3 Mar 2007
Poorly researched and badly debated arguments are put forward in almost every chapter. For example, we are told that the Italian are better at coping with advanced capitalism than the British or the American; yet no statistical evidence is provided to support this notion.
Conversly, the author tells us that the Danish are better adjusted and more contented than any other population in the western world; he has overlooked the statistic on suicide, alcohol abuse and racism available all the scandinavian countries, including Denmark.
This is a classic example of navel gazing and bellyaching by the middle class for the middle class. A real disappointment.
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