A Family Year Abroad
How to Live Outside the Borders

By Chris Westphal

Reviewed by Kelly Midura

Chris Westphal has written an engaging and enjoyable, if flawed, combination of travelogue and guidebook. It is an experiment that, despite its occasional nuggets of good advice and flashes of humor, doesn't quite work.

A Family Year Abroad documents the author's year in Prague as the "trailing spouse" of an English teacher and as a stay-at-home parent to two elementary-school-aged children. We experience the year through his unique, and yet typical, perspective.

The best parts of the book describe the family's various problems in settling in to expatriate life -- the language barrier, the getting lost, the mistakes one makes when one has no idea what one is doing in a foreign culture. Westphal's honesty and storytelling ability make these anecdotes enjoyable, and as a long-time expatriate myself, I can attest to their realism. In particular his description of the typical cycle of culture shock -- elation, depression, finally settling in just in time to leave the country-is useful and well illustrated by anecdotes throughout the book. Early on, the author notes, "Daily life seemed to take on an almost magical quality -- but that was because we weren't really living a normal life…We were still tourists, enchanted by everything we saw." Surprise, surprise, by the middle of the year (and the book), the stay-at-home parent, stuck in a dreary apartment while the rest of the family is engaged in life in Prague, is depressed. Having gone through exactly the same experience during my first year in this beautiful, but definitely very cold and gray city, I could identify with this problem! And finally, just as the Westphal family gets settled in, and everyone's happy, it's time to go and they must contemplate whether to extend their stay in Prague.

However, this valuable story is mixed up, seemingly randomly, with bits and pieces of practical advice. There are some good tips here, but they are hopelessly disorganized and as a resident of Prague, I was surprised to see names of prominent landmarks misspelled (perhaps an American editor is at fault.) On top of that, a bizarre series of email messages between Westphal and his publisher appears throughout the book, adding to the distractions. Not only did I never really understand the thread of these emails, it made me vaguely uncomfortable to be "listening in" on the conversation.

Finally, the author pretty much admits upfront that his family was able to embark on this financially questionable venture because of a stock portfolio that was "skyrocketing" in value. Hmm, well, that would rule most out of the people I know as candidates for the experience right there. However, according to Westphal, that's no problem because "in today's global economy opportunities exist that make living abroad feasible for many families." OK, but, assuming these families aren't relying on monster stock dividends to get by, I think they are going to need more than one sentence in this book to find those opportunities.

Moving a family abroad is in no way the same as moving abroad as an individual -- say an exchange student or teacher who can improvise just about anywhere. You don't take kids overseas without at least some sense of financial security. It seems to me that if this book is intended to help families independently move abroad, then the very first section of the book should have been entirely devoted to finding employment overseas, and should have listed extensive resources -- websites, books, etc. -- to enable further research.

While I admire the spirit that led this family to move overseas for a year, I also think they were rather lucky in that they had the financial resources to handle the risks, and that they ended up in a nice place with modern medical care and a great school. A move to Kenya or Paraguay might not have turned out so well. Therefore, my recommendation would be to buy A Family Year Abroad either as an interesting description of life in Prague, or as an amusing insight into an expatriate's first year abroad. As a guide to moving or living overseas, I think one could do better.

[Editor's Note: For a list of other books about expatriate life, please see our Book Reviews, as well as recommendations on our home page.]

To buy this book, visit Amazon.com.

Kelly Midura is a freelance website designer, writer and Foreign Service family member. She invites all and sundry to visit her at www.kellyswebstudio.com .