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BILL BRYSON
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DOWN
UNDER (2000) |
Sub-category:
Nonfiction
The plot: After many years
of Aussie fans begging to read Bryson's interpretation of
Australia, he finally makes several trips to the land down
under during 1999. To try and capture the sense of the Australian
way of life, he travels from east to west and south to north,
taking in many (but not all) of Australia's wonders and people.
Comment: The book started
off with a riot of humour and history as Bryson arrives in
Sydney, reminisces about previous short visits and then jumps
on the Indian Pacific train to Perth. In the second part,
he takes in the "Boomerang Coast" - the south east
of Australia framed by Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and southern
Queensland. In the final part, he visits the northern and
western 3/4s of Australia. The well of humour runs a little
dry as Bryson explores the Boomerang Coast, but the tone picks
up as he tours up north with a friend. And then he blazes
through Western Australia which despite dominating over a
third of the country, gets nothing more than a passing mention.
Disappointingly, Bryson really glosses over Melbourne and
Perth - he's been there before! I would imagine most readers
have not, and thus he missed the opportunity to dwell a little
on the vast differences between Australian cities. Nonetheless,
Bryson's research is outstanding and not only will the world
learn many new and interesting bits of trivia about Australia;
Australian's will learn quite a bit!
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NOTES
FROM A BIG COUNTRY (1999) |
Sub-category:
Non-fiction
The plot: Shorty after
Bryson's return to his birth country of America after 20 years
in the U.K., he is approached by a British magazine to write
a series of articles about his experiences on returning home
after 20 years. This book is a compilation of Bryson's musings
over the period of just over a year.
Comment: If you venture
into this book without reading the forward (as I did) it can
be quite baffling initially as you really get the feeling
Bryson is narrating to an exclusively British audience (which
of course, he is). However, that aside, this book is quite
a collection of nice anecdotes about the mystifying complexities
of America. I could relate to it all having moved to America
from Australia 10 years ago, and so I could relate to many
of the experiences described. However, Bryson delivers with
his trademark gentle humour making a light-hearted mockery
of himself and his countrymen as he comes to grip with a country
that has changed over the last 20 years. The funniest (I regret
to say) was actually towards the very end of the book where
some scenes he described had tears streaming down my face
(no doubt in part due to the environs I was reading this book
meant I had to laugh silently, which was terribly hard...)
and it might have been better if they had been more evenly
distributed throughout.
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NOTES FROM A
SMALL ISLAND |
Sub-category:
Non-fiction
The plot: Bill Bryson is
an American journalist who spent the better of his life living
in Great Britain. When the decision is made for him and his
family to return to America (statistics Americans abducted
by aliens are alarming; his people need him!), he decides
to take one last trip around the Island. Starting at the point
where he first landed (Dover), Bryson works his way up to
the northern most reaches of Scotland (John O'Groats) and
then back to his home in Yorkshire. This is the gentle yet
amusing journal he kept as he backpacked around Britain, encountering
British eccentricities.
Comment:This book is extremely
funny and is not to be read anywhere where silence is a must.
For anyone who has lived or travelled or experienced the British,
there are many amusing hometruths. However, periodically,
Bryson's language can get slightly vulgar, and that has led
a few people to be turned off but his writing. A shame since
he writes so well about life as a tourist traveller...
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TOP ]
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An
absolute sizzler of a movie - A must see! |
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A
scorcher of a good movie; still capable of riveting you
to your seat |
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Low
flame burner; a pleasant piece of mindless brain candy |
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A
fizzler of a movie which will have you counting zzzzzz's... |
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