text: I bought this book before my first trip to Austria. I had a 
  sinking feeling while reading it that it was mostly a 
  pastiche of unusable generalizations. That turned out to be
  true. What shall we do with a paragraph that tells us that
  Austrian women are strong-minded and independent and 
  organize their homelife well, although many go to work?
  
  This book might have some value for a person who had never
  left their english-speaking homeland before and needed to 
  be warned that people are sometimes naked in the sauna
  or at the beach. It also provides some amusing anecdotes
  about language (especially viennese) and useful info about 
  festivals.
  
  Mostly, though this book was good for reading aloud to
  Austrian friends. I would quote it as an iron-clad 
  authority when their behavior didn't quite match the 
  book's version and thereby amused them tremendously.
  
  
  --Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and
  the forthcoming novel bang BANG from Kunati Books.ISBN
  978160164000
  