All the World's a Mall

All the World's a Mall / Rinny Gremaud
trans. from the French by Luise von Flotow
Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2023, c2018.
152 p.

I picked up this slim book at my library, thinking it was an interesting premise -- the author travels to five cities, Edmonton, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, and Casablanca, to visit five of the largest malls in the world. 

I was intrigued by the inclusion of the West Edmonton Mall, since I have been there myself.  That is mainly why I wanted to read it. The book began in Edmonton & I enjoyed seeing her explore places I recognized. 

The concept is that these malls are almost like cities into themselves, but she finds that they are sterile, centered on commerce & transactional relationships, lacking any real sense of life. I think that is a common response to megamalls.

She pushes herself to rapidly visit these five shopping centres, interviewing shop owners and executives. Interspersed with this, she talks about her own life & family, how tired she is, how much she misses them. 

Even though this is a short book, it felt repetitive by the end. The malls are indeed all very much alike & that sameness means she doesn't have a lot to add by the fifth one. Also, having her conclusion laid out in the first chapter means that there isn't too much discovery going on. It just felt depressing by halfway through, with the reader wondering why she was bothering to complete this project.  

So while there were some good points, especially in the first half, I did feel like the book kind of petered out. Perhaps it would have been more effective as a magazine article in a condensed form.