This book is not one that I would have chosen without prompting. Well written and interesting it was a quick read during my vacation. Bongiorni chronicles the “advice”, support, non-support and familial challenges faced during a year without purchasing, as best the family could, products from China. The challenge posed by the author on her family and the strictures, spoken and unspoken, known and later discovered, provide an entertaining jaunt with one family.
Along the way, the author discovers where products from China hide under different names, how others react to such a boycott, and what others experienced with similar goals.
The larger question: China’s not quite strangle-hold on U.S. instant gratification, as well as necessities, startles the uninitiated. Honestly, one must stop to consider the question after reading the book because the issues faced by this one family occur on a small scale. The author continues to reflect on the minimal impact one family’s boycott would have on the economy. The point might be missed readers must think beyond the subject matter of the book-a family- to the larger global issue-China’s influence on the U.S. economy.
An interesting read. Recommend it for a rainy afternoon or a vacation.
