Watters writes skillfully. His tone is measured, but you can see Watters struggling for a consistent voice and style. Is this lay scholarship (the nearly three dozen pages of sources are impressive) or first person travelogue? The “I’’ wavers in and out. Zanzibar is the most personal section. Sri Lanka feels the most distant, seemingly reported largely from library research and phone conversations; the section could have benefited from in-country reporting and more follow-up now that five years have passed since the tsunami. One could criticize the inconsistent methodology, or see the various approaches as creative tacks into a tricky subject matter.
Making the rest of the world crazy
(Page 3 of 3)
Watters never fully unleashes his indignation, either. One might wish for a little more passion, particularly in the Sri Lanka and Japan chapters. But “Crazy Like Us’’ isn’t outright investigative journalism; the book is thoughtful, contextualized reportage of a disturbing if not entirely surprising trend.
The situation presented in “Crazy Like Us’’ is akin to the disappearing Amazon. “The remarkable diversity once seen among different cultures’ conceptions of madness,’’ Watters writes, “is rapidly disappearing.’’ Whether Watters’ book will be sand in the engines of the bulldozers remains to be seen. At least it proves the West, despite its best intentions, does not possess all the answers.
Ethan Gilsdorf, author of “Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms,’’ can be reached at ethan@ethangilsdorf .com.
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