I read an advance copy of Randall Robinson's new book Quitting America few months, and I expected a pretty big splash when it was actually published. I may have missed it, but I don't think that happened.

Quitting America doesn't make a single tight argument as The Debt did, but it's a very powerful book -- all about the reasons that drove Robinson to leave the US and live in St. Kitts, his wife's home island in the Caribbean. There is a chapter on Iraq and one on Robinson's friendship with Aristide that has become a lot more topical in recent weeks. But what sticks with me is Robinson's feeling of alienation from the US, a country that he tried to love and couldn't.

At times Quitting America seems to paint St. Kitts and the rest of the Caribbean as a paradise on earth where everyone is more concerned about neighbors and the quality of life than about money. I don't think that all political violence and repression of women and gays in the Caribbean can be attributed to US influence -- and Robinson might have a somewhat different experience of St. Kitts if he weren't financially well-off. But the book still offers many troubling reflections on what's wrong with American culture.