Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
54th out of 331 books
—
201 voters
The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home
by
Pico Iyer
From the acclaimed author of Video Nights in Kathmandu comes this intriguing new book that deciphers the cultural ramifications of globalization and the rising tide of worldwide displacement.
Beginning in Los Angeles International Airport, where town life?shops, services, sociability?is available without a town, Pico Iyer takes us on a tour of the transnational village our...more
Beginning in Los Angeles International Airport, where town life?shops, services, sociability?is available without a town, Pico Iyer takes us on a tour of the transnational village our...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
March 13th 2001
by Vintage
(first published February 29th 2000)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
828)
I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. For some reason, Pico Iyer's writing style makes me think he wants readers to feel sorry for him for not having an easily categorized identity. And I don't feel sorry for him, so it is annoying. He does have some interesting observations about the world but I can't get past his tone to fully appreciate them.
Pico Iyer is known as a travel writer, but this book reads closer to an autobiographical dissection of his identity crisis. Iyer writes about a difficult topic, the modern migrant’s search for a sense of belonging. If you have parents from different cultures, multiple passports and/or nationalities and no right to vote in any country in the world, you might find this book intriguing.
As a third culture kid myself, I found I could relate to Iyer’s observations on many levels. The modern migrant’s...more
As a third culture kid myself, I found I could relate to Iyer’s observations on many levels. The modern migrant’s...more
Easy to read, but can be boring and annoying at times.
It can also be a discomfiting read for someone (like myself) who has undertaken intensive academic study of phenomena like globalization, transnational networks and communities, diaspora, and so on.
But this might be a good text to read with undergraduates or young students interested in learning more about globalization--the strength of the teaching utilizing the weaknesses of Iyer's problem- and contradiction-filled text. An extra challenge...more
It can also be a discomfiting read for someone (like myself) who has undertaken intensive academic study of phenomena like globalization, transnational networks and communities, diaspora, and so on.
But this might be a good text to read with undergraduates or young students interested in learning more about globalization--the strength of the teaching utilizing the weaknesses of Iyer's problem- and contradiction-filled text. An extra challenge...more
In the introduction to an anthology of travel writing for 2008, Anthony Bourdain, probably known more as a writer about food & travel than as a chef, mentioned Pico Iyer in a list of travel writers that really know their craft. Iyer writes about travel and what changes in travel's ease and speed have on passenger after s/he walks off the passenger gangway. He focuses on how humans, now newly able to cross natural barriers of timezone, culture, and distance, have altered their perceptions of...more
This book is insightful as the author himself leads such a multicultural life. He is a British born Indian who grew up in America and lives in Japan. He talks about airport culture (or meta-culture) and cross cultural relationships. The prose is manic exposition almost all of the way through but Iyer has so many facts at his fingertips I never felt like I was living solely inside his head. I still have my questions, such as how most of the world can't live like him (flying from country to countr...more
Pico Iyer is an Indian male with an Italian sounding name (which he says is often taken for a female name, and I admit I thought this was by a female when I bought it), raised and educated in England, mostly a resident of America and Japan as an adult, whose job as journalist has him constantly criss-crossing the globe on planes.
That background and resume certainly makes him well equipped to investigate the increasing phenomena of rootlessness amongst so many of the world's citizens, and to pro...more
That background and resume certainly makes him well equipped to investigate the increasing phenomena of rootlessness amongst so many of the world's citizens, and to pro...more
Well, this sucked.
I had never heard of Pico Iyer until I joined a group here on goodreads that talks about travel literature. I love travel literature (at least I think I do. Maybe I just love Paul Theroux and Mark Twain.) I got the impression that Iyer was one of THE travel authors to read, and immediately put him on my ebay watch-list. A few weeks later, this book was what I was able to acquire(and good thing I bought it for Euro on ebay, too, because it certainly wasn't worth more!)
I wish I c...more
I had never heard of Pico Iyer until I joined a group here on goodreads that talks about travel literature. I love travel literature (at least I think I do. Maybe I just love Paul Theroux and Mark Twain.) I got the impression that Iyer was one of THE travel authors to read, and immediately put him on my ebay watch-list. A few weeks later, this book was what I was able to acquire(and good thing I bought it for Euro on ebay, too, because it certainly wasn't worth more!)
I wish I c...more
Read this a while ago and enjoyed it. The author describes the new environments (airports, malls, hotels) where many people spend much of their lives. I like the quote: 'More and more of us may find ourselves in the metaphysical equivalent of that state we know from railway stations, when we are sitting in a carriage waiting to pull out and can’t tell, often, whether we’re moving forwards, or the train behind us is pulling back.'
It' reflective and easy to read. One for the global traveller!
It' reflective and easy to read. One for the global traveller!
look, this book made me dizzy and pico's insistence on how freaking global he is really began to grate after about ten pages. good for you bro, you're a global soul! but hey maybe so are the rest of us? and his writing style -- i get what he's trying to do, but after about two pages, it's unnecessary to keep cataloging who/what everyone is, where they are from etc etc. i think that kind of overshadows/whelms his point about the global soul or whatever -- if you are truly a global soul, man would...more
Iyer is one of the great travel writers, and I give this 2 stars only in comparison with what I know he is capable of. He has a promising start, discussing the notion of a global soul: a uniquely modern human created by advances in technology and breaking down of borders and colonialism. But he seems to lose sight of his iniitial premise, and rambles on about Toronto, the Olympics, England and its colonies, and Japan. Some good parts, but overall he gets lost in the absractionism and shades of g...more
People say that Video Night in Kathmandu is good. I wouldn't say this one was. As a Canadian, I found his assessment of Toronto to be rather ungrounded. He seems to think it's a kind of multicultural utopia, and although Canadians heap a lot of undue scorn on the place, it has a lot of social problems: a rich-poor disparity for one, guns for another. This was my first attempt at Pico Iyer; I just didn't get it, but perhaps I should try again.
Not a whole lot of joy in this book. Basically seven long - sometimes rambling - essays dealing with the meaning of multiculturalism, (inter)nationalism, globalization, etc.
Generally speaking, I found this one pretty dull. It's Iyer musing, for 300 pages - where is home? where am I from? why do I look Indian and not speak the language? etc, etc. Particularly the first half seems to be a collection of observations of "culture clash" (for lack of a better term): Chinese girls working in Mexican r...more
Generally speaking, I found this one pretty dull. It's Iyer musing, for 300 pages - where is home? where am I from? why do I look Indian and not speak the language? etc, etc. Particularly the first half seems to be a collection of observations of "culture clash" (for lack of a better term): Chinese girls working in Mexican r...more
Aug 07, 2011
Maria
added it
Took me a few chapters to get into it, but enjoyed it by the end - in particular the chapters on Toronto, Atlanta (Olympics) and why he chooses to live in the suburbs in Japan. Some wonderfully written lines that ring true for those of us who find ourselves in a similar situation, but in the end it wasn't one of my favourites by the author.
I myself am a Global Soul like Iyer. Of one heritage, born in a different country and living in a totally different one. Hence, I can relate to much of what he has to say. How did I find this? Well, Iyer wrote the Introduction to the new edition of The Inland Sea. That piqued my interest in him, but didn't search any further until February this year when raiding Blue Parrot Books with my biblioholic mate, Gaijinmama, where I found this 2nd-hand copy signed in April 2007 by the man himself to Ton...more
Pico Iyer has written an honest and insightful book. Recounting a life spent in various countries, he writes with the clarity and objectivity of an anthropologist or historian. Yet, his cleverly crafted thoughts are profoundly affecting; providing delightful entertainment. Pico Iyer implicitly understands the joy and the sorrow of being a stranger in a strange land. For those, who have embraced global living, his book is a "must read."
Recommended by a friend but didn't come up to the mark for me. For a book about home and self it seemed to lack soul (despite it being in title). Kept going to end, as some observations of cultures from airports and malls were quite intriguing.
While I really like Iyer's writing, I realized how quickly outdated travel books can become reading this one. Published in 2000, this book just doesn't seem as relevant about (inter-)national identities as it must have 13 years ago.
Re-read for class. A couple of places are dated but book is good. Had an ah-ha moment when in last chapter when I realized he has attachment issues. Should have seen that coming--idea of global soul means you're not attached to anything.
I have always enjoyed the travel memoir. I disagree with many of Iyer's beliefs and theories, but I like his writing. Lately, he has been writing a lot about Buddhism. I hope he has not abandoned the travel memoir genre.
This one really hit home for me. Early on in my career I was traveling a fair bit. This book analyses this area and makes you really think about the changes that makes on ones outlook on the world. very good read.
I found it a little dry at first, but it's an interesting read for anyone who travels often, has lived abroad, or has found themselves between cultures in some other way.
I really identified with the ethos depicted by this book when I first read it years ago. Among other things, he notes the trend of giving kids gender-neutral names (like my own).
I'm giving this lower ranking because I was reading this on and off and frankly I got bored in some part plus disagreed in other part. However, an interesting look at the contradictions of modern global life (even I'm a contradiction: an Indian kid born Singapore who's lived in London and Hong Kong and going to an American school). It made me open up my eyes to the world we live in. Thoroughly outdated though, so you have to read it with that perspective (I don't think I was even born when this...more
The author is of Indian ethnicity, born and educated in England, and lives in Japan with his significant other and her children. No wonder he feels rootless! The most interesting part of the book was the ending where he described his life as a perpetual outsider in rural Japan.
I didn't like it at first, but when I re-read it again and again, I was able to understand what Pico Iyer was conveying in this book.
A walking contradiction who is in dire need of a shrink; claims to be a victim of being a "global soul"; a man with no home except that of the this planet.
Very interesting comments on how acceleration of time has affected humans, coporations and whole cities.
Some personal reflections on homesickness and yearning for the elusive places that don’t exist (anymore).
Such a stable, comforting narrative. Yes, it does repeat itself often but I think it's part of the charm.
elegantly written description of the alienation of modern life
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
