William Alexander (3) (1953–)

This book was a surprise hit for me. I knew I'd like it, but not having read any of William Alexander's other books (yet), I had no way of knowing how approachable and informative and, most of all, how utterly hilarious it would be! I too have tried to learn French at various times as an adult, and while I won't reveal how Alexander's attempt at immersion went, mine have been flops. At this point, I'm finding it much more satisfying to read about someone else's French fumbles, and Alexander show more makes it a delight and a treat. And I'm almost inspired to have another go at it myself. Presque. show less

I am a gardener who enjoys reading gardening and farming memoirs, so I was wholeheartedly expecting to love The $64 Tomato. And I almost did.

I would say that I really enjoyed reading 90% of this book. Alexander's gardening mishaps were amusing, and I could relate to a few. I also related to the desire to have a garden - fresh produce all year round, and about as local as you can get. There is something so satisfying about making a meal knowing that you are the one responsible for the growing show more of the majority of it. Like Alexander, I pore over seed catalogs during the cold days of winter, daydreaming and making wish lists of what I want to plant in the spring. Every year I try to switch it up, and plant different things, and I really look forward to January when the catalogs all start to arrive.

All gardeners have to deal with the pests that invade the garden - it's just the way it goes. But Alexander goes to the extreme in dealing with them, and here is where he loses me. He live traps the ground animals that make a feast of his vegetables, and lets them go elsewhere - this is fine, that makes sense to me. But one day, he caught a possum, a creature he described as spitting mad and extremely angry. I have seen many possums in traps in my volunteer capacity at the city pound, and I have never seen one like that. Most are sitting in the corner of the trap, scared and confused. Others act like it is not their first rodeo, and calmly hang out, all relaxed. So maybe Alexander got a mean one. I can understand that too. I am sure it happens. But Alexander makes the conscious decision to let the possum die in the trap from dehydration and exposure to the hot August day. He intentionally makes the decision to let this animal suffer to death. When after three days it is just barely still alive , he tries to drown it by submerging the trap into a garbage can filled with water. But the water is not deep enough, and the possum clings to the top, trying to keep its head above water. After all is said and done, Alexander frees the possum into the woods, where it probably wobbled off and died, according to him. This makes me sick. If you are going to trap an animal, man up and take care of it, don't leave it to suffer for days on end. That is just torture. But then I guess I am one of those animal rights people you just can't reason with, as he says in his book. I decided to ask my meat eating husband what he thought, and without any prompting on my part, he came to the same conclusion that I did; he says there is no reason that an animal should suffer like that.

I am sure there was something else he could have done, such as contacting animal control; I fairly certain he mentioned a pest control guy lives down the street from him. In addition to torturing the possum, he also installs an electric fence with a 6,000 volt charge to discourage deer from entering his garden. As a result he repeatedly albeit accidentally, electrocutes his tree surgeon. This is full metal gardening.

After reading this book, it was no surprise to me that he grew $64 tomatoes. He paid a professional landscapers to design and create his garden, including "Big Machinery" to move the earth around, not to mention that crazy electric wire. I am glad I don't need to resort to such measures. My garden is regularly raided by rabbits and voles and squirrels, and probably mice too, and while I hate losing produce to them, it is a small price to pay. What we grow is more than plenty, for my family and for the animals. And I am sure my tomatoes wouldn't cost $64, although they are very delicious. show less

I was disappointed by this book. Sure, every foreign language learner will, somehow, relate to William Alexander's frustrating experience and the epiphany it brings:

'The truth is, not only have I failed to become fluent or conversant, in French, but I've failed spectacularly -more so than I ever imagined possible. You can't say I haven't tried. Over thirteen months, I've completed all five levels of Rosetta Stone, Fluenz French, a hundred podcasts of Coffee Break French, two Pimsleur audio show more courses, a fifty-two-episode season of the 1987 PBS series French in Action, a weekend immersion class, social networking, a Sartre play in French, and a dual-language book, topped off by two weeks at one of the top language schools in France.'

'I realize that there are two kinds of French: there's situational French, the kind taught in all the courses, and then there's everything else. Situational French makes good use of all those little clusters you've learned (est-ce que je peux, j'ai besoin de) and you can substitute a word here or there to borrow a pen, try on a hat, or move your table. Yet the French of 'everything else', the French of normal conversation, requires vocabulary, grammar and, especially, speaking and oral comprehension skills that I've barely scratched the surface of in my hundred of hours of study.'

The thing is, I was expecting it to be complemented by serious and enlightening pieces of relevant linguistics (e.g. on second language acquisition, language learning, the history of French language etc.) and, on that score, it failed to deliver. In fact, the linguistics parts are so light they are not worth it, as you can learn it all in many other books way more interesting that this one! And, even worse than that was the ending, annoying and counter-productive. Indeed, the author failed to learn French at the level he would have like to, but it shouldn't have been had he changed his approach. After all, he was clever enough to understand he was going about it the complete wrong way! Thus, no matter his final emphasis put on how foreign language learning benefits your brain (whether you succeed at it or not) I can't get myself to be satisfied with failure.

All in all then, here's an entertaining and amusing read, but poorer than expected when it comes to proper linguistics and, more to the point, far from being motivating for any potential learner. show less

I just loved this book full of fun, adventure, knowledge, and - dare I say - spiritual enlightenment. Alexander has a penchant for digging deep and he spares no effort from growing his own wheat to travelling abroad for the perfect loaf. His determination is striking and his sense of humour is communicative. The last chapters are nothing less than amazing as he encounters characters as mesmerizing as the author's awakening in a French monastery that he will change forever. It makes one show more believe in miracles. show less