Christopher Combe

I received a free copy of this e-book from the author in an exchange for a review.
“One Year in Wonderland...” is a blog-style story of a professional QS living and working for approx. one year in Dubai, UAE. What initially seems to be a tax-free paradise, quickly turns out to be a real eye opener for the author and his family alike. He tells us about the two expat and immigrant communities living in Dubai, his everyday professional and family life abroad and the challenges and boredom he faces as a Westerner.
All in all it is a very interesting book that I quite enjoyed. Didn’t fully appreciate the blog-style writing, would certainly suggest a lot of editing to be done (spelling mistakes etc); also thought that the author didn’t really make much effort to know Dubai and the whole culture better, e.g. spending most of his spare time in shopping malls and then describing them in detail, but on the other hand it only shows you it’s not possible to adapt to a new culture/place in just one year and the life of an expat is not as great as they like to paint it (at least in the early stages). It’s definitely an interesting read and would recommend it to anyone going to UAE to work or holiday and also to those thinking of moving to live in another country.… (mehr)

I received a free copy of this book in exchanged for a review.

As someone who blogs regularly, I found the blogging style of the book to be a little disjointed. It just didn't seem to flow well.

The book is narrated from the point of view of an expat who occasionally plays tourist. I felt like I was visiting Dubai as I read. I could picture the people, the environment, the sights,sounds, and smell of busy Dubai. As it is a true story, the writer infused his emotions into it. The emotions helped me to understand more about the Dubai culture.

The writer is hired for a Dubai construction firm, and moves there. His wife and children join him a few weeks later. He writes about being immersed into a culture he knows little about. He writes about the society of the rich and the poor. He writes about the large expat community there. He writes about all things Dubai.

I found the story itself very interesting and informative. I learned a lot about Dubai and about the culture there, something I never would have bothered to learn otherwise. I recommend reading this book, especially if going to Dubai.… (mehr)

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this as an e-book in exchange for an honest personal review.

Having visited Dubai in its pre-boom days and having an interest to visit again, I was very intrigued by the prospect fo reading about a western ex-pat's experience in Dubai for a year. While the book had some great insight into the country as well as the expat experience, it was overall a bit disappointing and low-density (you have to read a lot of pages to get something truly though-provoking or interesting).

There are some great descriptions of people and places that are quite good. Several subtle pop-culture references (and probably more that I missed as a non-Brit) that were quite clever and effective. I got a good idea of what to plan for when I take a holiday in Dubai (which actually is my intent at some point). I think he has some very good observations about society in Dubai and the gaps between the haves and have-nots. I had noticed this in my visit in the mid-90s also and it is interesting that it is still very much the case--perhaps even more so.

Probably the biggest shortcoming is that the book is a publication of a blog, apparently without a retrospective edit to identify and coalesce around a coherent theme or direction. There are entries about his health, his work, a little about his family, the mechanics of living in Dubai and hanging out. Had the author looked back at his entries and identified a major theme that he wanted to convey about his experience and then revised his entries to develop that theme it would have been much more interesting. In one case, he went back and added a retrospective to tie in with a theme, but it's almost as if he felt that he had to keep all his entries pristine as they were originally written to be true to the blog/diary genre. Several entries were rather bland and pointless and seemed to have no function exccept to support page count.

I appreciate he author's self-awareness of his perspective as a Western Ex-pat and how that colored his perceptions. However--perhaps because of that perspective--he fell short of his potential by only observing culture at a shallow depth. He never seemed to ask "why" the society is as it is--he is content to simply accept it even though he seems to disapprove of it.

The tone is very conversational and personal. While this lends an accessible air to it, it also lets the book slide into informality that diminishes its value. The cynical tone and language in some places is rather off-putting. Again, something that could have been improved and made more effective with some editing.

All in all, 95% of the book was summed up in the last 4 pages, and if that's all you read, you really wouldn't have missed much. It's an easy, entertaining read that's easy to read in small chunks.… (mehr)