A must read for any trailiing spouse

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	• Diplomatic Baggage: The Adventures of a Trailing Spouse Brigid Keenan John Murray, 2007 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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A must read for any trailiing spouse

As a young diplomat, I laughed from beginning to end. This book is an honest account of the many mixed feelings that spouses ( and their partners) feel when abroad.

Maybe not always politically correct, but absolutely honest. Having a sense of humour and being able to laugh at oneself is the most important attribute that a diplomat and his/her spouse can have!

A must read for any trailing spouse and their partners!

funny but annoying

I find the book has many laughs but it is also very annoying in its seemingly off-the-cuff political remarks. George Bush is of course the devil and Keenan never misses an opportunity to tell us how pro-Palestinian she is while displaying a very unappealing, old-fashioned, old school British (even though she says she's Irish) anti-Semitism. She loves Syria and disses "Jewish moneylenders." The fact that the fab crowd of England are used profusely in the blurbs to sell the book and their consensus is not only is this book hilarious, but also important, makes me think this smug silly attitude is acceptable in those circles. Makes one pause....

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Funny & hilarious

Funny & hilarious writing. Basically the postings are presented in a chronological manner, but at times the author jumps to describe something happened in another posting which is a bit confusing.

In the first chapter, the author shows that a diplomat wife's life is not as glamorous & "prestigious" as the general public would think. I can understand the depressed feeling brought by the cycle of loneliness, homesickness, language barrier, making new friends, getting used to a place and then leaving local friends for the next posting.

But reading on, you'll find that actually she's not THAT miserable & bored, as she'd made lots of new friends in all postings, gone to & organized dinner parties, initiated a project in saving rundown historical buildings, organized fund raising campaigns, written a few books and a newspaper column, had weekend excursions to archaeological sites & interesting places, and even designed her own pattern of dyed cloth to sell!

Which made the first chapter quite odd. By her feelings & behaviour (eg crying all day, having argument with her diplomatic husband), you would think she's a young & immature girl just married to a diplomat sent to Almaty. But NO! This is in fact the then current posting after nearly 30 yrs of overseas postings. So why did she still feel so miserable & sad? It's hard for the reader to reconcile this with such an experienced "trailing spouse".

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reviews: page 1, 2

Brigid Keenan was a glamorous and successful young London fashion journalist. But falling in love with a diplomat saw her leave behind the gilt chairs of the Paris salons for a large chicken shed in the forests of Nepal. Thirty years later (at the farewell party for the Papal Nuncio in Kazakhstan), Brigid found herself wondering whether her decision had been the right one. This is her marvelous account of life as a "trailing spouse"?an endlessly engaging tale of diplomatic protocol, difficult teenagers, homesickness, frustrated career aspirations, witch doctors, and giant jumping spiders.

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