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Summary: A Little Dose of Culture Shock that's funny and insightful.
Review: I'd be willing to make a bet that you have heard of Bill Bryson. I'd bet on that because almost everyone anywhere has heard of him. His most well known book, A Walk in the Woods, was a humorous chronicle of his hikes on the Appalachian Trail. Another of his books, In a Sunburned Country, is known for its appealing tales of Australia, based on Bryson's first-hand experiences while visiting the continent. I know many of you have also heard of his recent book I'm a Stranger Here Myself, but I am taking the risk of being redundant by praising this book in case one of you hasn't, because it is definitely worth a read.This was my first introduction to Bill Bryson, and a great one at that, so I can testify that those of you who- gasp!- may be thinking, "Bill who?" will become very familiar with his unique writing style, not to mention hooked on his great sense of humor, just by reading this book. However, veteran Bryson fans have also told me they thoroughly enjoyed this book as much as, or if not more than, his other ones, so I think it's fair to say that even those who think nothing could be better than A Walk in the Woods would change their minds with a reading of I'm a Stranger Here Myself. Subtitled "Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away", this book is not only a thought-provoking look into an American native-turned-foreigner-turned-native-again, but a huge slice of Americana. This collection of articles Bryson wrote for a British newspaper after he and his English wife and English-born children moved to New Hampshire gives short glimpses into regular American experiences such as baseball games, trips to the barber, and evenings out with the family. However, an added twist is his puzzling outlook on the American lifestyle he had put aside when he moved to England twenty years ago, and his observations often tell a lot more about Americans than about Bryson's own life. I have heard many observations made by Bryson in I'm a Stranger Here Myself be commented upon by those who were either born in or brought up in countries outside the US and then came to live here. For instance, why do Americans think it is absolutely necessary to have a car, and why are American roads planned in such inconvenient ways for the few pedestrians who do set out for a walk or jog every now and then? Why do Americans go on sudden fitness binges during which they feel they must surround themselves with gym equipment and workout programs, when it would be much simpler to incorporate exercise into their daily routines? And why are American tax forms so confusing and American bureaucratic policies so hard to get through? Why does the American justice system punish first time drug offenders as hard as or sometimes even harder than they do some rapists and murderers? And whatever happened to those old American traditions such as drive-in movies and road side motels owned by private, family-run businesses? Even those of us who are used to living in America but who have traveled to Europe will find ourselves nodding in agreement to many of Bryson's comparisons between the two continents. After returning from a year abroad in Spain, I was constantly reminded of the differences between the European and American lifestyles, and Bryson does a great job of pointing out all of these distinctions. He covers the conveniences of living in the US as well as the problems that go unnoticed by many American citizens, even those who are conscious voters or activists. I'm A Stranger Here Myself is a little book about everything: politics, culture shock, American life, European life, random rants and musings... you name it, it's here. However, it's mostly about humor, for Bryson as usual finds a way to make everything funny. I couldn't read it at work because I was laughing out loud. So instead I went outside on my lunch break and laughed out loud while random people walked by gawking at the weirdo who was laughing to herself. Those of you who have read Bill Bryson before- and again, I am betting that it's a lot of you- know what I'm talking about. So pick up a copy of I'm a Stranger Here Myself and be reminded of just how funny he is. And for those of you who have never read him, I promise it's worth your time and the energy you will exert by laughing. It will remind you that we are all a bit of a stranger even in our own familiar little world, and that looking at something common through a new perspective will certainly cause a smile and a nod of agreement from those who are new to- or returning to- what for the rest of us is an everyday thing.
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Summary: If you like non-stop complaining!!!!
Review: I enjoyed "A Walk in the Woods" on tape, so I bought the tape of "I'm a Stranger Here Myself". While there's some amusing anecdotes and insights, this book is something best taken in very, very small doses. Especially on tape, Mr. Bryson is a world-class whiner. He complains, kvetches, and moans about every small annoyance that confronts people in everyday life. If life is really this bad for him, I'm surprised he ever leaves the house.
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Summary: amusingly educational collection of columns
Review: The title pretty well spares me the need to describe the book except that it is in the format of reprints of previously published columns for a British audience. What is nice here is that we see not only how we look, but what about us would 'jump out' at a foreign people. I think you either like Bryson's brand of humour or you don't. Myself, I think he's hysterical; he's a lot like Dave Barry, so if you like one you'll probably like the other. He's a little less silly in his approach than Barry; the humour doesn't mask his actual emotions about what he encounters. I find him to be a keen observer of his own native land, but since by and large his criticisms are similar to mine, I guess that's no big shocker. Marked down only because all the material is previously published, and because there's one flaw here and it's one to which we Westerners are quite sensitive: except for allusions to his Iowa childhood and some travel around the country, by and large he's talking about the Northeast. The unspoken assumption is that he's in the only part of the country that really matters or has any character and that the rest of us live in big, boring, empty, non-cozy, everything-was-built-yesterday states. As for me, I think all parts of the nation have value. His 'Notes on Returning to America' are really 'Notes about moving from Britain to New Hampshire'. A very good book nonetheless, and on the bright side, a good look at New Hampshire for those of us who haven't been there.
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Summary: Like Paul Thoreux on nitrous oxide
Review: Bill Bryson's talent for ferreting out the odd and humorous from the stuff of everyday life has been entertaining his readers for a number of years. While spending the better part of two decades in Great Britain, he wrote travel memoirs ("Notes From A Small Island," "The Lost Continent") and books on the English language ("The Mother Tongue," "Made in America"). After he removed his family to Hanover, N.H., he wrote "A Walk in the Wood," his hilarious and sometimes sobering account of his attempts to hike the Appalachian Trail. As if that wasn't enough, he was also writing a weekly column for a British newspaper, and he has gathered 70 of these into "I'm A Stranger Here Myself." As a humor columnist, Bryson shares many similarities with Dave Barry. He has the ability to see the odd and unusual, things that we may not see or simply take for granted. He finds the toll-free number on the box of dental floss and wonders why anyone would call it ("OK, I got the floss. Now what?"), remembers the road trips his family made in an America before the chain gangs like Holiday Inn and Cracker Barrel got to it, ("Visit World Famous Atomic Rock -- It Really Glows!"), or muses on the suitability of "Live Free or Die," the New Hampshire state motto on his license plate ("Frankly, I would prefer something a little more equivocal and less terminal -- "Live Free or Pout" perhaps.") But Bryson has something that Barry doesn't: attitude. The ability to see is a two-edged sword. People may not always appreciate what you have to say about them. Going for a walk on a beautiful day, he notices how many drivers have their windows rolled up, how we want to shop in enclosed malls, work in temperature-controlled offices, to the absurdity of dressing up in exercise clothes and driving to the mall in order to walk there. His visit to the Opryland Hotel, with its "flawless, aseptic, self-contained world, with a perfect unvarying climate and an absence of messy birds, annoying insects, irksome and unpredictable weather, or indeed any kind of reality," reminded him of '50s art in Popular Science describing a space colony on Venus: "Or at least what it would be like if all the space colonists were overweight middle-aged people in Nike sneakers and baseball caps who spent their lives walking around eating handheld food." Bryson also attacks the American shopping experience, our simultaneous obsession with dieting and eating fatty foods, the vacuousness of cable television and our overabundance of choice ("there is too much of every single thing that one could possibly want or need except time, money, good plumbers, and people who say thank you when you hold open a door for them." Bryson can be as cranky as Paul Thoreoux, but you'll take it with a smile.
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Summary: Bryson at his most political
Review: This book is a collection of newspaper articles that author Bill Bryson wrote for a British newspaper concerning his thoughts upon returning to America after 20 years of living in Britain. As such, the quality of the book varies greatly with the quality of the articles. The best usually are the intenionally humorous pieces about topics as varied the death of drive-in movie theaters and the joys of American junk food. The worst articles come mostly when Bryson takes to his soap box and goes on one of his left wing tangents. The political ideas he exposes are those of a standard liberal bleeding heart and are not at all original. And for him to put Kennedy on his list of our greatest Presidents and leave out Truman is laughable. Overall, there is some good Bryson material here, but the whole is inconsistent.
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Summary: A funny fellow on deadline -- and it shows
Review: This is the first of Bryson's books that I've read. He is unquestionably observant and trenchant, and that makes the book very readable. But the pressures of a regular deadline seem to have rendered some of his essays perfunctory. Many of the the pieces echo each other in tone and topic, which detracts from the book's overall impact. Still, I'm eager to read more from this man, who at his best is laugh-out-loud funny.
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Summary: Too Cute
Review: I've read bits and pieces of some Bryson books on the recommendations from various newspapers. What a mistake. I'm not going to over-generalize everything, but all this fellow does is complain, complain, complain. Now this is not a bad thing. Complaints can be funny. The Virginia Speech Convention went down in history and it was just one long complaint. But this is a middleaged man trying to act coquettish by pretending to notice things from a different angle. Example: He says he could have never invented Solitaire because it would have never occurred to him to line up the cards in equal rows, etc, etc... That is because, Mr. Bryson, you have a lack of imagination. I read that part aloud to my father and he said 'He can't be very smart.' It is a pity he spent so much time in Britain but was in no way influenced by all the great English writers, both living and dead. In fact, his articles follow the same cookie-cutter formula as columns in my old high school newspapers do. He really, really, REALLY wants you to laugh, and remark "oh, how clever", or "oh, what wit!" If you want a book of collected columns, get "Paperweight" by Stephen Fry, or if you want a travelogue, get "A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle, someone who actually >enjoys< going on journeys. Or, purchase this book to see all the mistakes inexperienced writers make. Use it as a "What Not to Do" guide. Honestly, now. This is the "Whole 9 Yards"(terribly unfunny movie) of literature
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Summary: Don't read in public!
Review: I started reading this book on an airplane and started laughing so hard I was crying! The person I was traveling with was mortified until I had him read a couple pages and he too was in stitches. After that, the people around us were close to calling a flight attendant to have us restrained. Unlike Bryson's other books, this is actually a collection of articles he wrote for a British newspaper. It has been perfect bedtime reading as each chapter is short and complete sending me off to dreamland with a big smile on my face.
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Summary: Excellent look at American culture
Review: Mr. Bryson's work is always funny/serious, and this book is no exception. Every American should read it for a unique perspective on both the good and the bad in America.
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Summary: Insightful analysis of American culture
Review: This book is the US edition of the book published elsewhere as "Notes from a Big Country". Although the US edition has lost some of the strengths of the original, it also retains most of its enjoyable content. Bryson makes insightful and witty observations about American culture. Based on his weekly newspaper columns for an English newspaper, Bryson describes life in America. Readers are guaranteed to laugh out loud, but at the same time the humour delivers much food for thought about North American culture. For North Americans who are perhaps guilty at times of arrogance, such self-examination and a critical close look at ourselves is of great benefit. This is an entertaining as well as thought provoking read.
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