Looking for My Country: Finding Myself in America

Naomi Brun is a freelance writer and a book reviewer for The Hamilton
Spectator.

Robert MacNeil spent an illustrious career as a new journalist covering
major world events and interviewing the great personalities of our time.
He cut his newsroom teeth on the Suez crisis, he was there when Kennedy
was shot, he followed the rise and fall of Nixon, and he struggled with
censorship issues during the Vietnam War and the Cold War. MacNeil, who
earned a reputation for insightful, accurate reporting, was solicited by
news agencies in three countries. To meet the demands of his work, he
moved first to Britain, then to the United States, and travelled
frequently.

Little wonder, then, that his latest book bears the title Looking for
My Country. In this memoir, he confesses that his search for a homeland
has been lifelong, and resolved only recently. MacNeil grew up in a Nova
Scotia household that revered all things British, so for a time he
thought that his true allegiance lay with England. He moved to London
when he was in his 20s, but after the initial romance wore off, he
experienced profound disillusionment with the British way of life. A job
offer with NBC prompted him to immigrate to the United States, where, he
eventually realized, he belonged.

Looking for My Country is an open, candid account of his desire to find
his true home. He writes honestly about the results of his travels, from
his rewarded ambition to his two failed marriages, and takes full
responsibility for the decisions he made. Equally refreshing is his
brisk, clear style. These trademarks of good journalistic writing set
Looking for My Country above the rambling, self-indulgent memoirs so
commonly published today.

Like the heroes of American literature, MacNeil’s commitment to
living the examined life led him to journey on both a physical and an
emotional level. Perhaps it is not so surprising, then, that he has
found his spiritual home in

the land of Emerson, Twain, and Whitman.