How can you summarize a country’s character in just 34 minutes? Well, that is exactly what author and speaker Neil Pasricha aims at doing in this audiobook. Pasricha enters the topic by remembering the bank calendar his family got each year at the Royal Bank branch in Oshawa, Ontario. As Pasricha and his sister flipped through the calendar’s beautiful images of Canada, their father, a recent immigrant from India, told them, “Just remember how lucky you are … Canada is the best country in the world, and you get to live here.” Such strong feelings of Canadian nationalism may surprise American listeners in particular, but that is exactly what my Dutch immigrant father would say to me when I was a child growing up in Ontario. While Pasricha avoids entering into any great detail about the various conflicts in Canadian society, he distills Canadian pride in poutine, butter tarts, social services, and a population where 40% were born outside of the country: “We give people a home and let them succeed.” And if, like me, you feel guilty about leaving your home and native land, Pasricha tells us not to worry, for “we are a citizen developer, we develop global citizens for the world.” It is possible that Pasricha’s image of Canada is not yours. He succeeds, however, in presenting a winsome snapshot of Canadian pride. (Audible)
About the Author
Otto Selles teaches French at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Mich., and attends Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids.