Title: the half-empty glass
Product review: "Polite Lies" wanders back and forth between kvetching and bellyaching. Complaints stain nearly every page. When Kyoko Mori was married, she objected to people asking about the color of her living room. She explains that she and her husband wanted to do as little decorating as possible. Then on the next page she is complaining about "our mismatched furniture" and "how bad our furniture was". A full review could provide endless examples of grouchiness expressed in well-turned phrases.Mori's insistence on painting herself as a malcontent overwhelms her otherwise valuable insights as a resident and traveler in two cultures. And when Mori offers comments on literature, the book seems to begin breathing fresh air.Mori writes that as a child she was a picky eater. The tragedy is that this habit expanded until it drove nearly every aspect of her life.
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