The Foreign Service Journal, June 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2015 105 daughter Claudia, ‘If books written by young women are called chick lit, what do you think older women’s should be called?’ After some thought, she sug- gested decreplit.” The dated journal entries and Keenan’s self-deprecating prose move the story along, but don’t prevent it from getting bogged down in various tangents. Their peripatetic lifestyle— London, Somerset, Brussels, Kazakh- stan, Azerbaijan, trips to Israel—can be tiresome to keep up with. Keenan’s sometimes flatfooted political com- ments may make you wince. And some journal entries are so mundane you wonder why they were ever included. The book is richest when it show- cases the author doing what she does best: observing and humorously describing her life. “The packers have been here all weekend and everything of ours has gone,” she writes near the end of the book. It’s a feeling any FS member who has ever packed out knows well. “Our beautiful room looks rather empty and sad. To help us with unpack- ing in England, I asked the packers to write on the boxes what is inside. On the ones containing our bed linens, they have written Ambassador’s shits. ” Packing Up is full of bits like this, which make you chuckle and nod knowingly without even realizing you’re doing it. This is not a book to read if you’re looking for great insight on the meaning of life, but it is a book to enjoy for what it is: One that’s easy to put down, but also easy to pick back up again. n Debra Blome is a former associate editor of The Foreign Service Journal. The book is richest when it showcases the author doing what she does best: observing and humorously describing her life.