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people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #27,858 most helpful
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★★☆☆☆
Not as advertised.
I read an excerpt of this book on Tim Ferriss's blog, and I bought it on the presumption that it would answer some of the questions set forth. Namely, how are wealthy people preparing for potential economic emergencies and how will Neil, a not-so-wealthy author, use that information to prepare himself? Tim Ferriss talks about how he gets "in" with the author to find out about the "mysterious 5 flags." He later summarizes the book as follows:
"Neil's new book, Emergency, teaches you how to become Jason Bourne.
Multiple passports, moving assets, lock-picking, escape and evasion, foraging, even how to cross borders without detection (one preferred location: McAllen, Texas, page 390)-it's a veritable encyclopedia of for those who want to disappear or become lawsuit-proof global citizens."
That is not at all what this book is actually about. It has more in common with 'Travels with Charley' than 'Bourne Identity'
What this book is not:
1. A manual that dwells on options. Example, the only solution Neil offers for economic safeguarding is wiring $500,000 to St. Kitts and buying property there, and later becoming a citizen. Not a scalable solution.
2. About currency, passports, swiss banking etc. - basically all the topics about becoming a "lawsuit-proof global citizen" or opening up your personal options internationally are glossed over. The law firm in charge of "lawsuit proofing" Neil is under investigation by the end of the book.
3. A practical guide to anything really that can save your life, unless you take it to be advice that you should take a half dozen survivalist courses and practice sleeping in your backyard.
What this book is:
1. Aw-shucks musings about his girlfriend, who he presents as nails-on-chalkboard ditzy and selfish, but gosh darn it, if ya look at it the right way, downright wise! If the phrase "I'm going to Kendra's" will somehow save your life, then perhaps this is the book for you.
2. A page turner - all in all a pretty good story. I read it in one sitting without too much boredom.
3. FULL of celebrity name dropping and other very dishy stuff about his billionaire friends. "When I saw Leonard Cohen..." "When I crashed Tom Cruise's bike..." "I looked over toward President Clinton..." "Trisha (Yearwood) wanted us backstage..." Lots of glam setup for a story basically about a guy learning to camp.
4. A classic 'city slicker wises up' type story with the feel good ending that Neil decides to help people at the end by becoming an EMT. It even features the "begrudging respect" when someone he initially dismisses turns out to have some value in their "potato head."
5. Very heavily weighted toward caching/stashing food, emergency toilets, camping, foraging, knife and gun skills, tracking etc. However, all of these topics are approached anecdotally, as in "I can identify over 700 kinds of tracks" with only one photographic example, and no real segue into how this relates to anything.
All in all it was an entertaining read, but I wouldn't recommend it to perform as advertised because there isn't anything in it that is truly useful.
