My 'Dam Life: Three Years in Holland - Softcover

Condon, Sean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0864427816 ISBN 13: 9780864427816

Publisher: Lonely Planet, 2003

Synopsis

Sean Condon has moved to Amsterdam. He got married, and he’s unemployed (what’s worse, so is his wife). Sean is back and funnier than ever, this time exploring the strange habits of the Dutch. He also keeps a watchful and wonderfully self-deprecating eye on the whole strange business of writing about yourself doing, well, nothing much, in this post-modern age. Sean’s uncanny ability to find the absurd in everyday life misses nothing and My ‘Dam Life will strike a side-splitting chord with anyone who has ever been unemployed, been married or tried not to be deported from a foreign land.

About this title

Reviews

*Starred Review* Fans of offbeat travel literature rejoice! Condon, coauthor of Sean and David's Long Drive (1996) and Drive thru America (1998), returns with this hysterical, delightful, and (mostly) true account of his temporary residence in Amsterdam. The story begins when Condon's wife, a magazine editor, is transferred from the couple's home in Australia to the Netherlands; before they can settle in (finding a comfortable home in Amsterdam is next to impossible), the magazine folds, and our heroes are unemployed, fast approaching penniless, but determined to make a go of it in their new country. Condon's wife, Sally, takes a job in a theater box office, while he joins an up-and-coming (they hope) advertising agency and, later, accepts a series of peculiar writing assignments. He also, out of a combination of desperation and whimsy, applies for an assortment of oddball jobs, including scheduling programs for a Dutch television station. Chuckles abound. Stylistically and philosophically, Condon is as close to Bill Bryson as it's possible to be. He mixes fascinating facts with hilarious humor, peppers the book with an assortment of wild and wonderful supporting characters (Francis Ford Coppola and Monica Lewinsky, if you can believe it, make cameo appearances here), and keeps us thoroughly in stitches from beginning to end. This one's an absolute must-read. David Pitt
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Edition details

• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0864427816
• ISBN 13: 9780864427816
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 245