A Real Life: Restoring What Matters: Family, Good Friends and a True Community

"We seem to have forgotten what life is all about." So begins this heartfelt, laugh-out-loud follow-up to Máté's cult classic, A Reasonable Life. He warns us that lulled by electronic pacifiers and hypnotized by sublimed greed, we are becoming physically inert, intellectually blinkered, and devoid of deep emotion. Our unquestioned obsession with goods and gadgets has displaced true and lasting joys like our health, creativity, fulfillment, and, most importantly, our time spent with one another.

How has our pursuit of the American dream left us? Financially insecure, estranged from our family, helpless without our wireless toys, increasingly isolated, overweight and, pervasively depressed. But don't despair, a renaissance is underway. Máté's call for genuine, physical, passionate living challenges you to re-evaluate the meanings of "success," "security," technological "progress," and how you work, eat, play, and love.

Simple steps can turn your life around, let you take control, and find satisfaction in a better and much fuller existence. Surprising statistics and engaging anecdotes will rekindle your forgotten pride and joy in independence, neighborliness, working with your hands, and the irreplaceable rewards of time spent in nature and in face to face relationships. e the mall and gadgets a rest and get a real life.

"A handbook of survival in these strange times." CW Magazine

"His book comes out of an amazing life experience, and it inspires us to travel in search of the ultimate souvenir: Learning to live a more fulfilling life." Rick Steves

"We need this book now more than ever" Travel with Rick Steves

"We need this book now more than ever" NBC TV

With our environment on its knees, our great myths and cities crumbling, Ferenc Mátéargues in this passionate, darkly funny book that now is the time to begin our lives anew, on a more human scale. With our lust for mechanized "progress" we have damaged and endangered not only our planet but also our communities, families, and even friendships. He warns that our environmental movement by itself is as effective as "trying to stop a freight-train with a feather." He argues for fundamental change--by each of us. We must place simple human needs and the human spirit far ahead of material wealth. We must rethink our concepts of career, home life, habits, and what we call security and success. And we must resurrect our foundations: the small town, the family, and a dignified caring self. Only then will our earth become the paradise we once had and mistakenly took for granted.

How has our unquestioned pursuit of the American dream left us? Financially insecure, estranged from our families, helpless without our wireless toys, overweight, pervasivel depressed and increasingly isolated. But don't despair, a renaissance is underway In this new call for genuine, vibrant living, M t challenges us to re-evaluate the meaning of "success," "security," technological "progress," and how we work, eat, play, and love. With surprising statistics, eye-opening observations, and engaging anecdotes he rekindles in us a love of simple daily life: the forgotten pride and joy of independence, neighborliness, working with our hands, the revitalizing effect of closeness to nature, the irreplaceable value of lifelong friendships, and the enduring rewards of face-to-face conversation.

"This book will look insane to any normal American, which shows how crazy we've become."—Charles Bowden, author of Desierto

A witty and passionate plea for rejecting the treadmill of consumerism and returning to a vibrant life.

Our obsession with goods and gadgets leads us to neglect true and lasting joys: our health, creativity, self-reflection, and, most important, the time we spend with one another. Two decades ago, Ferenc M

"If 'in adversity is hidden opportunity' then lurking around the corner must be the Mother of All Great Chances."

"We seem to have forgotten what life is all about..."

So begins this heartfelt, laugh-out-loud sequel to Máté's cult classic, A Reasonable Life. He cautions us that as slaves to electronic devices and obsessed with material goods, we are becoming physically inert, intellectually blinkered, and devoid of deep emotion. Our blind lust for gadgets and possessions has displaced true and lasting joys such as our health, creativity, self-reflection, and fulfillment. How has our unquestioned pursuit of the American dream left us? Financially insecure, estranged from our families, helpless without our wireless toys, overweight, pervasively depressed and increasingly isolated. But don't despair, a renaissance is underway. In this new call for genuine, vibrant living, Máté challenges us to re-evaluate the meaning of "success," "security," technological "progress," and how we work, eat, play, and love. With surprising statistics, eye-opening observations, and engaging anecdotes he rekindles in us a love of simple daily life: the forgotten pride and joy of independence, neighborliness, working with our hands, the revitalizing effect of closeness to nature, the irreplaceable value of lifelong friendships, and the enduring rewards of face-to-face conversation.

Ferenc Máté was born in Hungary and escaped after the revolution at the age of eleven. He grew up in Vancouver, and has lived in California, Paris, Rome, the Bahamas and New York. He had worked on a railroad extra-gang and as a boatbuilder, photographer, deckhand and book editor. His many books include the nautical bestsellers From a Bare Hull, Shipshape and The World's Best Sailboats, as well as Autumn, A New England Autumn, A Reasonable Life, A Real Life, The Hills of Tuscany and The Wisdom of Tuscany. He and his family run their vineyards and winery in Montalcino, Tuscany.