Radom itibaren Batui, Sisipan, Batui, Kabupaten Banggai, Sulawesi Tengah 94761, Indonesia
This scores four stars and a "highly recommended" rating because the stories of the families Bronson interviews are fascinating, genuine, and instructive in their own way. There is an incredible diversity of experience here that is hard to find in similar projects. The book is at its best when Bronson lets these stories flow on their own, without interjecting his own commentary, and fortunately that's what happens for most of the book. The problem is when Bronson does inject his own commentary, often little more than unedited rants: these moments derail the narrative flow of the book, and ultimately feel like he's trying to make each family's story somehow about him and his agenda (I could hear his many axes grinding in the background). Most of his assertions aren't backed up by any statistical data, and even when they are, instead of providing a footnote, he simply refers the reader to his website, which is at best extraordinarily lazy (at worst it's rank self-promotion covering up for a lack of research). At the beginning of each chapter he poses a question, which I imagine some readers will find interesting and others (like me) will find unnecessary; I ignored them, for the most part. Bronson also mentions, during his interjections, that near the end he will tell the reader some of his own story. He'll occasionally mention the hard lives of his grandparents, and repeatedly pats himself on the back for overcoming his relationship fears (and his child-free Manhattanite friends, who are somehow representative of all of humanity) to get married and have children. And yet, the story he tells at the end of the book is about his relationship with his brother. It's a good and interesting story, but not at all what the breadcrumbs he scattered throughout the book led the reader to expect. It feels more like sloppiness than a bait-and-switch, once again affirming that if there's anything this book needed, it was a good editor. Nonetheless, the stories of the families are so interesting, so varied, and ultimately well-told on their own, and that earns it its high rating and recommendation. I especially recommend this to people who are in the midst of family troubles of their own and unsure of how to handle them--this book won't tell you what to do, but it will make you feel less alone in your struggles, and it will show you the range of solutions different people have tried (whether or not they worked). And you can skip Bronson's editorializing--you won't miss anything, really.