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My Dam Life (Condon) (Travel Literature) | 
 enlarge | Author: Sean Condon
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Category: Book
List Price: $13.99
Buy Used: $2.33
You Save: $11.66 (83%)
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Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 130862
Media: Paperback
Pages: 248
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0864427816
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.920473
EAN: 9780864427816
ASIN: 0864427816
Publication Date: February 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ***ex-library with usual stamps and markings*** other wise good condition All Day Low Prices! Buy From Us, Sell To Us, We Do it All!!
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Product Description
Sean Condon has moved to Amsterdam. He got married, and he s unemployed (what s worse, so is his wife). Sean is back and funnier than ever, this time exploring the strange habits of the Dutch. He also keeps a watchful and wonderfully self-deprecating eye on the whole strange business of writing about yourself doing, well, nothing much, in this post-modern age. Sean s uncanny ability to find the absurd in everyday life misses nothing and My Dam Life will strike a side-splitting chord with anyone who has ever been unemployed, been married or tried not to be deported from a foreign land.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 My 'dam pathetic unemployed life October 14, 2005
Paul L (California, USA)
18 out of 21 found this review helpful
I found this book to be a complete waste of time; the only reason I even bothered to finish it was because I had some of these (seeded?) positive reviews lingering in my mind and I kept expecting it to get better.
Although the book does offer some insight into a certain sub-culture in the Netherlands (with a sprinkling of humor here and there), I should have taken the hint from some of the previous reviews before I ordered. As others have alluded, this is more of an autobiography than a book about the city or the culture. And a worthwhile autobiography it is not - I wasn't particularly impressed with the way the author chooses to live his life as a lazy unemployed slob while his wife struggles to make ends meet.
I feel generous giving it two stars - the second star appearing mainly for the catchy title and the sporadic bits of humor.
 Hi-larious! May 4, 2003
A. Ross (Washington, DC)
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
Even if you never intend to visit the Netherlands, this is a wonderful book-especially if you ever plan to live abroad. I'd never heard of Condon before, but five pages into his hilarious account of spending three years in Amsterdam, I vowed to track down his two previous books (Sean & David's Long Drive and Drive Thru America). Thirtysomething Australian humorist, writer, and advertising hack Condon moved to the Netherlands in 1998 with his half-Dutch wife, who had gotten a magazine job there. Their subsequent trials and tribulations are rendered in vivid and snappily witty prose that's somewhat akin to Bill Bryson's, but pitched at a younger readership and with a bit more pop-culture nodding and winking. The couple's primary trial is the extreme lack of affordable housing in Amsterdam, exacerbated by their own semi-legitimate residency status. The other major running problem is his lack of employment and lack of prospects, which is alleviated here and there by somewhat amusing stints at ad agencies. Throughout the book Condon is somehow able to juggle the task of making the reader feel his pain and provoking laugh after laugh. Of course he doesn't fail to provide a little Dutch history, and a lot of Amsterdam life (albeit with the outsider's eye), which makes the book a must read for anyone planning a trip there. And just to vary the menu, there are rather bizarre and hilarious business trips to San Francisco in search of Francis Ford Coppola and to London in search of good web content. Condon ought to win a prize for "Funniest Use of Footnotes"-ever. And did I mention the walk-ons by Monica Lewinsky and Roger "007" Moore?
Self absorbed January 2, 2004
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
Boring. Sean comes across as self absorbed, lazy and whiney. The laughs seem forced. The story meanders and doesn't seem to go anywhere or achieve anything. It's probably a personal preference, but I prefer my travel books to reveal some sort of journey - spiritual, emotional or physical, and this book is not one of them. Shallow and pointless. Try other aussie travel writers such as Sarah MacDonald's 'Holy Cow'or Sarah Turnbull's 'Almost French'instead.
Agonizingly self-absorbed November 29, 2006
Steve Jones (Missouri, USA)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
What a thoroughly irritating book. If you are seeking a useful perspective on Amsterdam, the Netherlands, or the Dutch, there is very nearly zero content of interest.
That Condon could live in one of the most interesting cities in Europe for 3 years, write a book about it and say so little about the place is astonishing - a true testament to his self absorption.
I found myself cringing at the relentless focus on his apparent worthlessness, handled without insight, and with lame attempts at humor that rarely work.
The only two interesting characters in the book, his wife and Keith, are barely covered. I found myself wishing to hear more about them, only from someone else.
One can only wish that someone would return his video games and take away his word processor.
Having said all that, I did give him 2 stars instead of 1 because of his few brief asides regarding the oddness of his occasional interactions with celebrities were insightful and interesting. It mirrored some of my own experiences and really captured the tone.
 The Slacker Diaries May 13, 2004
R. P Pomeroy (Tampa, FL USA)
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
My 'Dam Life: Three Years in Holland
Sean Condon
Lonely Planet 2003
Sean Condon is an Australian travel writer and unwilling ad man. His two previous books were about aimless drives around Australia and the US. His new book, My 'Dam Life is about his aimless wanderings around the city of Amsterdam. Condon comes off as a younger, less inspired Bill Bryson. Where Bryson manages to balance tales of his own idiosyncrasies with hilarious and insightful commentary, Condon spends too much time on his own psyche and not enough on the places he's visiting.
While I really would have preferred a lot less Sean and a lot more Amsterdam, My 'Dam Life is still an enjoyable read. Having visited Holland four times, I'm familiar with a lot of geography Sean covers, which makes me wonder why he doesn't mention things like Jeronemous Bosch when he visits s'Hetogenbosch. That really would be more interesting than rambling on about punctuation like he does.
Once you accept Condon's myopic worldview and come to terms with the fact that there is precious little you can glean from his books that would help you plan a trip of your own, My 'Dam Life is a fairly amusing account of a slacker's attempt to make a new life for himself in Amsterdam. I have to wonder though. How much of Sean's troubles with shop keepers, dentists and the police were of his own making? My own experiences with the same groups in Amsterdam were much more positive. I guess you just have to shrug and consider the source.
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