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Outstanding
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Entertainment Weekly Gilbert Cruz
Lévy superbly conveys multiple, sometimes contradictory ideas.
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
In France, where anti-Americanism has been so popular, Levy has been an anti-anti-Americanist, and while he finds serious fissures in this country's social landscape, in the end he is an optimist about the future of a country he admires for the richness of its culture and its political vision. [12 Dec 2005, p.52]
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Favorable
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Wall Street Journal Harvey Mansfield
American Vertigo is filled with insights and goodwill, but it would have been even richer had Mr. Lévy shown more appreciation for democracy in America, or "Democracy in America."
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Favorable
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Booklist Jay Freeman
The result is an engaging but often-disturbing portrait of our nation from an eloquent, brutally honest foreigner who wishes our country well. [1 Jan 2006, p.48]
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Michael Kammen
The author's attentiveness to contemporary politics and politicians keeps the book lively even when the jabs seem unfair or unreliable.
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Favorable
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The Economist
American Vertigo is worth reading for these delicious details; it is doubly worth reading if it sends you back to de Tocqueville's original masterwork.
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Mixed
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] David Shribman
Apparently no one edited this book, insuring that no one will understand it. [28 Jan 2006, p.D5]
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Mixed
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The New York Times William Grimes
American Vertigo feels like the kind of book a star might write: a disjointed collection of random observations, facile generalizations and MTV-style fast-cut takes on American popular culture, expressed in a high-flying rhetorical style that goes down well in France, but translates badly into English.
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Mixed
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Christian Science Monitor Stacey Vanek Smith
So, if you can stomach a few sucker punches, American Vertigo has its gems. Lévy ends the book with a critical but fair view of the US, one that even the most patriotic reader can appreciate.
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Mixed
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Houston Chronicle Charles Matthews
American Vertigo is a swamp of a book: trackless and confusing and often squishy where you expect it to be solid. But as with any swamp, if you're careful where you step and attentive to the surroundings, you may find things in it that are startling and useful.
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Mixed
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San Francisco Chronicle Michael O'Donnell
The result is a book that is alternately exasperating and thrilling, turn-off and spot-on. Not unlike its subject.
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Mixed
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USA Today Bob Minzesheimer
At turns, it's obvious, obtuse and insightful.
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Mixed
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Library Journal Jack Forman
Many readers may feel more vertigo from his shoot-from-the-hip commentary than Levy himself experienced in his travels. [15 Feb 2006, p.136]
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Unfavorable
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Kirkus Reviews
Those sharing Levy's politics will find comfort in his analysis; others will be dismayed by his banal observations and tiresome predictability. [1 Dec 2005, p.1267]
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Unfavorable
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Los Angeles Times Marianne Wiggins
If Levy's book is good for one thing, it's that it makes us stop and think how blessed we are to have had a Frenchman lavish so much thought on our nation's future. Vive Monsieur de Tocqueville! [22 Jan 2006, p.R3]
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Terrible
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The New York Times Book Review Garrison Keillor
Thanks for coming. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. For your next book, tell us about those riots in France, the cars burning in the suburbs of Paris. What was that all about? Were fat people involved?
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