I am a Canadian citizen who spent 95% of my life growing up in the United States. A family friend gave me Robert MacNeil's account of how he find himself in America, full of comparisons to his expectations of American based on his Canadian and Anglophile parents. I had a similar experience with English parents who had migrated through Canada to land in America. This is a great book for understanding the tension of the Canadian citizen and what they may or may not understand about their significant neighbor. I find many of the prejudices MacNeil outlines are still held, despite the very recent creation of Canadian identity, the start of which he talks about in his book.

Unfortunately, I don't think this is a terribly interesting book. While some of the discussion is quite interesting, much of it is biographical detail that I didn't feel was particularly useful in understanding his transition from Canadian/Anglophile to embracing the U.S. and becoming a citizen. Much of the biographical detail was recounted in his excellent book Wordstruck and, having read that recently, I both prefer it and may have felt like I was hearing a retread of old news.

Fans of MacNeil should definitely read this, and I think it has valuable insights for Canadians, Canadian ex-pats, and Americans living in Canada. ( )