AMERICA II

by Richard Louv ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1983

More pop social criticism, to be sure: America II, as San Diego/Seattle journalist Louv restates in myriad ways, is an amalgam of demographic change, ""a new kind of housing,"" ""a brand-new rural America,"" ""a new attitude toward work"" . . . all fueled by ""a powerful nostalgia, the rise of a counter-culture-libertarian ethic, the hunger for personal control in a livable environment, and a paradoxical assumption that a sense of coming home can often best be had by moving away."" But, as the foregoing indicates, Louv's travels in America II are inflected by reservations and apprehensions: if he's no Christopher Lasch, penetrating The Culture of Narcissism by overstatement, he's also no Daniel Yankelovich, celebrating New Rules. Apropos of the idealized ""urban village,"" Louv sees the cost, in Arizona, to the displaced Hispanic poor and to the environment; even enthusiasts, he observes, regard minorities and no growth-advocates as potential, divisive problems. In housing, he notes conflicts--as well as patterns--engendered by the disappearance of the detached single-family house and the demand, because of smaller households, for ""more homes, not fewer""; by ""the desire for separateness on the one hand, and for community on the other."" Re rural homesteading, he follows ""the yearning for nonmaterialistic values"" into Maine and New Hampshire for a mixed report: the ex-corporate honcho whose life is now controlled, he cheerfully attests, by cutting grass (to attract prospective tourist-customers); the town so strictly zoned ""to keep everything looking colonial"" that the residents' offspring will be unable to live, or make a living, there. On high tech as economic salvation, he's aware of the implications of Atari's recent overseas move--and that ""many data-processing jobs could easily be farmed out to the Third World."" Summarizing, he attempts to sort out positive and negative change--preeminently, to ward off the growth of ""two cultures."" Along those lines, not so much original (or trenchant) as broad in scope, effectively detailed, and large-spirited in purpose.

Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Tarcher--dist. by Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION