I recently finished reading David McWilliams' book, "The Pope's Children" which is I suppose a "review" of current Irish society as driven by a generation of people born in the late 1970s. The Pope visited Ireland in 1979, and hence McW uses this to name the 25-30 year olds as being the Pope's children.
A friend recommended this book to me, as reflecting the generation to which I belong. I duly bought it, expecting it to be an insight into society, but in this respect I was disappointed. The book is a statement of fact - a historical record maybe, but I didn't read anything in the line of commentary in the book.
McW outlines the excesses, the greed and the ostentatiousness that we are displaying in this country as a result of the credit and money that we have access to now. Bouncing castles, SUVs (I dislike this term for a variety of reasons, but I use it because it adequately denotes a group of pointlessly obese vehicles that scream about their huge inefficiency), decks, Gaelscoilleanna are all being used in early 21st Century Ireland as economic indicators, image-projection devices and symptoms of our new-found richesse.
I may have missed a bit, but I expect a book of this kind to at least make a stab at the effect of this conspicuous consumption on our country in the future. I found the book to be well-written - a little heavy on creating new jargon (Decklanders, HiCos, McW loves to make up terms it seems) - and entertaining in the main, but given the seriousness of the subject matter and McWs position as a popular economist and commentator I was disappointed in the lack of comment.
Perhaps I can recommend this book as an interesting read. It won't open your eyes, because you can see it all for yourself with your own eyes and ears! Maybe wait for the paperback.....
As an economist I'm disappointed to read that there was no opinion in this book! Although I'm never usually surprised with Economists sitting on the stupid fence. There was one main lesson we learned in the Economics Dept. in UCD - you will never find a one-handed economist. It's always "on one hand...[enter mile-long ramble here]...but then on the other hand...[enter other mile-long ramble here!]" but I must admit, I would have expected more from McWilliams, (not to be confused with singer/songwriter!) he's usually quite interesting. He's got some good papers if you would like to log on (insomnia sufferers only need apply) http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/Articles/index.asp - it makes economics a little more accessible for the masses ;o) I will indeed wait for the paperback, since yours is not the first mildly disappointed report to reach me.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing you rant on about your latest Dan Brown adventure... It's not great to be honest :( Deception is right! I reckon his best of the 4 so far was Angels & Demons. Much more interesting than Da Vinci, if a little 007-esque at the end, the rest of it was pretty cool. And as for Digital Fortress, mother OF, that was crappy.
Will you be delving into movie reviews for Ron Howard's most recent attempt at escapism!? Ah go on.