Pit stop

The olive tree represents parochialism; the Lexus is a luxury Japanese car
made by robots. Journalist Thomas Friedland takes them as symbols of the
tensions in the new post-Cold War era of globalisation. His globetrotting tour
of fanaticism and fast food, missiles and modems is lucid and engaging, but The
Lexus and the Olive Tree is unable to break out of an American world view and
ends up being a bit banal. Published by HarperCollins, £19.99, ISBN
0002570149.