Fire And Ice: The United States, Canada And The Myth Of Converging Values by Michael Adams

The main problem with this book, which uses statistical analysis of social trends in the United States and Canada to examine the differences in each culture, is probably the problem with a lot of books written out of studies: it feels as though it could have been a nice, taut twenty page article that's been stretched out to (barely) book length to increase marketability. Sure, Adams' prose is entertaining, but he travels in circles for 146 pages and reuses the same analogies over and over (I think he compared American inner cities to Blade Runner at least five times). The basic message is this: American society is spiraling ever deeper into a crime ridden nihilistic society that believes self pleasure is the ultimate achievement whereas Canadian society is already a utopia in which every citizen is holding hands and doing their best to make it even more of a utopia. I agree with a lot of what Adams says in the book, but whenever he strays from numerical analysis into his own bizarre form of synthesis it sort of seems as though he's interpreting American society from the movies they make he complains are poisoning the Canadian youth. He often sounds less like a statistician and more like somebody's crotchety grandfather who wishes kids wouldn't play so many of those violent Nintendon games. Who knows, though, I haven't lived in Canada for 15 years, maybe it has turned into a multicultural heaven totally void of racial or economic strife of any form.

RATING: 38%