Ron Gutman

Smile: The Astonishing Powers of a Simple Act

Smiles come and go everyday. Often times the simple act of smiling is not considered to have monumental impacts on the lives of people smiling as well as people being smiled at. Author, Ron Gutman challenges this thought in his book, “Smile: The Astonishing Powers of a Simple Act.” Gutman explores the power of a simple smile through personal anecdotes, appeal to logic, and surprising statistics.

Gutman opens strongly with an unexpected story of his own experience on a bus in Africa. He embarked on a year long journey around the world to experience different cultures. In one particular instance, Gutman was travelling on a bus in rural Zambia when he was met with hostility and distrust. With a bump in the road and a flat tire, Gutman quickly found himself spending even more time with people that seemingly shared no commonalities with him. He then decided to try something simple: smiling. His experiment was met with hesitation and then returned grins. The smiles began to travel through the whole bus and soon everyone was engaging in “smile-driven conversations” (Gutman 13). This astounding story led into an exploration of how smiles really can affect people. Smiles are not always simply the result of a feeling, but sometimes they can be the initiation of a feeling. Smiles actually create reactions within a person and present numerous health benefits (Gutman 33). Gutman most successfully paints his view through an anecdote involving a young American woman and her Japanese host family. In Japanese culture, it is uncommon for women to smile widely and frequently. The young woman could not find many similarities to bond with, but by the end of the trip her host mother explained that she learned “smile is beautiful” (Gutman 37). This genuine moment in the book offers a lovely insight into the connection and unity a smile can bring between humans.

Overall, Gutman translates his point, but he lacks engagement and dynamics within his work. I enjoyed the book as a whole, but it left me searching for more concrete data and validation to his claims. However, I concluded feeling inspired and encouraged by the ripple effect one act can have. Ron Gutman offers ideas that smiles can bridge cultures, increase success, provide health benefits, and create an overall more positive being. He portrays his intriguing findings and offers hope of that smiling is a gift to the receiver as well as the giver. I would recommend this book for a simple encouragement but not for an overwhelming amount of knowledge.