How They See Us: Meditations on America

A patchwork of personal narratives knitted around the impact of U.S. foreign policy before and after September 11, this book brings together leading voices in world literature, academia and international media including Chris Abani, Ricardo Alarcón and Terry Eagleton. Ranging from the autobiographical to the philosophical, these pieces reflect on how American cultural, military and political imperialism touches lives from Mexico to Morocco, Canada to China. A recurring theme of these informal essays is the psychosocial conflict that results from loving American music, food and such historical and pop culture as Marilyn Monroe, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bruce Springsteen, while despising Reagan and Bush. The authors also turn the mirror on themselves to examine why so many non-Americans claim a moral high ground while also assuming that they know “how to be better Americans than the Americans” through the spread of global consumerism. Full of humor and pathos in equal and abounding measure, this compact volume covers the intellectual ground from “Donald Duck to Donald Rumsfeld” with wit, depth and originality. (Dec.)