[.ca] The Undutchables: An Observation of the Netherlands, Its ... (ISBN 1888580321)

Don't Waste Your Time or Your Money:
My problems with this book are many, and they start with the title. Generally a pun has a point. Is there some connection between the Untouchables and the Dutch? If so, it certainly wasn't made evident to me. In like manner, every 10-15 pages, for no clear reason, the authors launch into a "presumably poetic phrase packed with powerful alliterative punch." One wonders if they're gearing up to release the next edition all in rhyme. Also, the term "Cloggy" seems to have been coined in an effort to make Dutch bashing easier. After all, there's nothing like a one- or two-syllable pejorative to help those clever insults to fly off the tongue just like birdsong! Just ask the propoganda artists who invented the terms "Kraut," "Dego", "Nigger", "Raghead" and "Jap" and the nasty jokes to go along with them. Their observations on the Dutch language are completely flawed. Dutch is not a form of German but rather a Germanic language in its own right just like English, Frisian, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Dubbing it a form of German implies that it has the same general character of German, which isn't true. It's a unique language with its own personality. And it's no more influenced by English and French than any other Western European language. But my main problem with the book is that it seems to be more of an Ameri-centric look at one part of the rest of the world than it is about life in Holland. I am an American who has lived abroad many times and in many countries, so I'm very familiar with the typical complaints Americans have about foreign places. And they're all in here. For example, the authors have a great deal to say about the oddities of Dutch toilets. One can't help but wonder how they failed to notice that no other country has toilets like those in America/Canada or, at least, didn't until very recently. If you are visiting Holland for the first time and you want to actively seek reasons to dislike everything about the place when you get there, then, by all means, buy this book. For every twenty pages or so of mean-spirited Dutch bashing, the authors throw in a paragraph (or maybe only a sentence) grudgingly congratulating the Dutch on some obscure trait or invention. Otherwise, it's pretty much chock full of tedious lists of how you should act to fit in with your wacky/greedy/stupid "Cloggy" hosts and insults regarding their "idiotic" birthday song and their inability to behave in orderly ways in public and, of course, their silly activism. If the authors think the Dutch are weird, boy would they find it difficult to live in Kuwait where I, a US citizen, am living and working or, especially, India, where I just spent a three-week vacation! In closing, I think the nice words that the Dutch typically have for this book aren't surprising. What do you do when you've been attacked in so mean-spirited a way? It's pretty much a lose-lose situation. If you complain, you may prove their point in some readers' eyes, but if you don't, people will just assume what they say is true. But, clearly, most Netherlanders have felt that responding in the spirit of good will was the best approach. As the Australians say, Good on them!

To Funny!!!:
I've been assigned to worked in the Netherlands for 6 months!!! And after two months prior to reading this book I just didn't understand what I was experiencing! This book makes perfect sense to me now. After going through my own Dutch growing pains, and trying to push a schedule on a project...Hint: You don't push anything in the Netherlands, you discuss it to death!...The Undutchable has given me much needed insight! Tot Ziens!

Perfect light reading about Dutch idiosyncracies:
I have been a Dutch expat for 10 years, and I finally got me a copy of this book after many recommendations. The book is written from an Anglosaxon perspective, but I would think that a native of Germany or Spain would nod and smile through most of the book. It gave me a good laugh and some new insights too. The authors sometimes sneer, sometimes admire, ridicule, or disapprove of how things are done in the Netherlands. These opinions are balanced and well thought out, but the authors never take their job too seriously. The result reads like a travel experience shared by a good friend.

Complete garbage (... and even offensive):
I live almost four years in the Netherlands and I got to know the Dutch people quite well. There are many Dutch people who are very kind and open and most of them actually have read this book and think that it is well-written and humoristic. I do not think so. It is very simple to laugh at the Dutch, since they are welcoming, friendly and polite and have their own national pride. Therefore, they will not take it serious. But this is the easiest way to approach their culture. So easy, as perceiving Amsterdam as a city that is dominated by coffee-shops, drugs and legal prostitution and not also the city influenced Anne Frank's diary and Rembrandt's work. Unfortunately, this book continues this superficial (and for even offensive) view on the Dutch culture and society, putting a basis for the Ex-pats favourite behaviour of "laugh at the Dutch as much as you can", rather than "learn from their liberalism, culture and society".

There's much better out there:
The authors are so eager to be funny and serious, they end up failing on both counts. Facts and jokes are delivered much the same way, making the book prone to misunderstandings. Particularly if you aren't already familiar with Dutch culture. If you want to learn about the Dutch and get to understand them better, read "Dealing with the Dutch" by Vossestein or "The Low Sky" by Van der Horst. For a really funny read, go with "Xenophobe's Guide to the Dutch" by Bolt.