City and Country Celebrations

by Ian Rohr

Describes the holidays and festivals celebrated in different towns and citys from around the world, revealing the rituals and festivities involved.

32 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly have not been able to really find anything uncritically textually positive and laudatory in and with Ian Rohr's 2011 non fiction picture book City and Rural Celebrations (and am finding my reading reaction to both Rohr's text and the accompanying photographs decidedly ho-hum). Sure, a goodly number of festivals both small and large, both rural and urban are mentioned and presented in City and Rural Celebrations. But it is indeed (and in my humble opinion) not at all sufficient for Ian Rohr to simply and superficially mention in City and Rural Celebrations information on both private and public festivals and parties but without never really demonstrating linkages from country to country (like for example, pointing out that the presentations of Brazilian Carnaval and New Orleans Mardi Gras are basically the same pre Lenten festivals), from area to area and thus also from culture to culture.

And yes, that there is in City and Rural Celebrations nothing at all in-depth with regard to Rohr's feathered themes and contents, that most if not even all of the details are majorly on the surface, to say, to claim that this is all a huge and problematic disappointment and annoying, well, that is totally and absolutely a major understatement, as I most definitely have found not nearly enough relevant and essential facts and data, not enough presented celebration and festival knowledge in City and Rural Celebrations and also not enough examinations of said facts for me to consider what Ian Rohr has penned to be anything but very barely adequate, as readers might receive a very basic and rudimentary introduction to celebrations and festivals but nothing more than that (and not to mention that the absence of a bibliography also renders City and Rural Celebrations pretty much useless for any type of supplemental research).

But the main reason that my rating for City and Rural Celebrations is only one star and not two stars is that I personally (and regarding the information Ian Rohr provides on rodeos) consider it totally unacceptable for Rohr to not point out that many of us do tend to find rodeos not a celebration of cowboys and ranching life but instead with calf roping, bronco busting, bull riding etc. there being both a feting of and justification for animals being expolited for entertainment. And while I of course would not automatically expect the author to despise rodeos, I do think that in City and Rural Celebrations Ian Rohr needs at the very least to acknowledge that rodeos are increasingly seen as controversial, and that this not being the case in City and Rural Celebrations is hugely problematic and also a serious academic and intellectual shortcoming.