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America Day by Day |
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Author:
Simone de Beauvoir
By University of California Press
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $22.95
Our Price: $6.00
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Product Description
Here is the ultimate American road book, one with a perspective unlike that of any other. In January 1947 Simone de Beauvoir landed at La Guardia airport and began a four-month journey that took her from one coast of the United States to the other, and back again. Embraced by the Cond Nast set in a swirl of cocktail parties in New York, where she was hailed as the "prettiest existentialist" by Janet Flanner in The New Yorker, de Beauvoir traveled west by car, train, and Greyhound, immersing herself in the nation's culture, customs, people, and landscape. The detailed diary she kept of her trip became America Day by Day, published in France in 1948 and offered here in a completely new translation. It is one of the most intimate, warm, and compulsively readable texts from the great writer's pen. Fascinating passages are devoted to Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and San Antonio. We see de Beauvoir gambling in a Reno casino, smoking her first marijuana cigarette in the Plaza Hotel, donning raingear to view Niagara Falls, lecturing at Vassar College, and learning firsthand about the Chicago underworld of morphine addicts and petty thieves with her lover Nelson Algren as her guide. This fresh, faithful translation superbly captures the essence of Simone de Beauvoir's distinctive voice. It demonstrates once again why she is one of the most profound, original, and influential writers and thinkers of the twentieth century. On New York:"I walk between the steep cliffs at the bottom of a canyon where no sun penetrates: it's permeated by a salt smell. Human history is not inscribed on these carefully calibrated buildings: They are closer to prehistoric caves than to the houses of Paris or Rome." On Los Angeles:"I watch the Mexican dances and eat chili con carne, which takes the roof off my mouth, I drink the tequila and I'm utterly dazed with pleasure."
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 A New Perspective on America, 2008-11-04
"America Day by Day" written by Simone de Beauvoir is a first hand view of America during post-World War II times by one of France's intellectuals of the time. She travels around the United States, first landing in New York City and ending back in Paris only to become disappointed by the look Paris has after touring America. This book was written after her visit but creatively written in journal format, dating from January 25 to May 20, 1947. On the contrary to public opinion, Beauvoir is not anti-American in this reading. Although she is very critical of the way of life people have in the United States, she seems throughly interested throughout her stay. One can note recurring themes that Beauvoir focuses on throughout the book, ranging from female rights to racism to the architecture and fellow intellectuals from America. This book is recommended for help on discovering different perspectives about the United States.
Beauvoir a fair critic , 2008-11-04
"America Day by Day" is an insightful literary and analytical piece of American culture in the 1940s. Simone de Beauvoir looks at the United States through very critical and apprehensive eyes. She notes the virtues of American society: the food, jazz, the buildings and the warmth of the American people. She also notes the vices: racism, the poor state of plantation workers, American consumerism and the political apathy of the American youth. Beauvoir's opinions of America are particularly poignant because she already an established French intellectual before she travels to America. The fact that she is a French woman arriving in the United States after the end of the Second World War also gives a new dimension to her perception of America. Her past experiences have heightened her perception of all the things around her; this reflects in her sensitivity to sounds, smells and temperature changes. Simone de Beauvoir can be seen as a fair critic of the United States and its culture as she tries to describe her experiences in America holistically; and does not focus on the negative aspects of American culture as would be expected from a French critic.
An interesting and relevant perspective on America, 2008-11-04
Simone de Beauvoir's account of her travels in America in the winter and spring of 1947 is both entertaining and insightful. Though Beauvoir only stayed in America for a few months her scope was far from limited; well connected, she traveled through much of the east coast, west coast, and south, and a bit of the mid-west. Beauvoir comments on everything from the American jazz scene to the individual character of towns to American cordiality. She both marvels at America and is critical of some of the phenomena she encounters there; particularly insightful are her examinations of racial discrimination and the double-sided aspect of American optimism. Also, more than just a picture of post-war America, many of her observations are incredibly relevant today, especially her descriptions of American political apathy - particularly among young people - and American conformism. America Day by Day offers a unique, intelligent perspective on America and American life from which one can learn about both America's past and present.
L'Amerique, 2008-11-04
America Day by Day by Simone de Beauvoir is an easy and interesting read. Beauvoir, a French author, takes the reader through her travels by diary like entry, where she calls things as she sees them. From New York to California, Beauvoir stops to speak at major colleges and hits many "tourist" attractions. She seems to follow the saying "when in Rome, do as the Roman's do" by eating hamburgers and speaking English as much as possible. She tries to make her entire trip as "American" as possible. And just when she though she could never adjust to America, she does and has to re-adjust to France in the end.
America Through French Eyes, 2008-11-04
"America Day by Day" is a look at the experiences of Simone de Beauvoir, a French existentialist, as she traveled through the United States in the Spring of 1947. Beauvoir chronicles her experiences in journal form, and the reader is able to gauge her reactions to different regions and factions of American life first hand. We witness her awe at all the conveniences in a hotel lobby, and her disdain for the situation with blacks in the South prior to the Civil Rights movement, among other things. Beauvoir primarily mixes and mingles with intellectuals and journalists, but she also has meaningful interactions with college students and African Americans. Through this all, we see Beauvoir's positive and negative views of the United States--both the goodness in the nature of the American people and the ways in which American freedom and democracy is restricted by the aristocratic nature of society are featured.
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780520210677
ISBN: 0520210670
Label: University of California Press
Manufacturer: University of California Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 408
Publication Date: 2000-03-30
Publisher: University of California Press
Studio: University of California Press |
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