The master humorist and bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods now guides us on an affectionate, hysterically funny tour of America's most outrageous absurdities. After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly three million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens--as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me"). They were greeted by a new-and-improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item. Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I'm a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. From motels ("one of those things--airline food is another--that I get excited about and should know better") to careless barbers ("in the mirror I am confronted with an image that brings to mind a lemon meringue pie with ears"), I'm a Stranger Here Myself chronicles the quirkiest aspects of life in America, right down to our hardware-store lingo, tax-return instructions, and vulnerability to home injury ("statistically in New Hampshire I am far more likely to be hurt by my ceiling or underpants than by a stranger"). Along the way Bill Bryson also reveals his rules for life (#1: It is not permitted to be both slow and stupid. You must choose one or the other); delivers the commencement address to a local high school ("I've learned that if you touch a surface to see if it's hot, it will be"); and manages to make friends with a skunk. The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended, if at times bemused, love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.
In the world of contemporary travel writing, Bill Bryson, the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods, often emerges as a major contender for King of Crankiness. Granted, he complains well and humorously, but between every line of his travel books you can almost hear the tinny echo: "I wanna go home, I miss my wife."
Happily, I'm a Stranger Here Myself unleashes a new Bryson, more contemplative and less likely to toss daggers. After two decades in England, he's relocated to Hanover, New Hampshire. In this collection (drawn from dispatches for London's Night & Day magazine), he's writing from home, in close proximity to wife and family. We find a happy marriage between humor and reflection as he assesses life both in New England and in the contemporary United States. With the telescopic perspective of one who's stepped out of the American mainstream and come back after 20 years, Bryson aptly holds the mirror up to U.S. culture, capturing its absurdities--such as hotlines for dental floss, the cult of the lawsuit, and strange American injuries such as those sustained from pillows and beds. "In the time it takes you to read this," he writes, "four of my fellow citizens will somehow manage to be wounded by their bedding."
The book also reflects the sweet side of small-town USA, with columns about post-office parties, dining at diners, and Thanksgiving--when the only goal is to "get your stomach into the approximate shape of a beach ball" and be grateful. And grateful we are that the previously peripatetic Bryson has returned to the U.S., turning his eye to this land--while living at home and near his wife. Under her benevolent influence, he entertains through thoughtful insights, not sarcastic stabs. --Melissa Rossi
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Hostile:
After reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything," I became a fast fan of Mr. Brysons writing style. I felt that he inserted humor and wit with accurate fact. However, this book takes on a very hostile, almost scathing review of the USA. I pity the foreign reader on what seems to be a very downtrodden review of the United States as a whole. Granted after not living in his country of birth for over twenty years, it is not nearly as terrible as Mr. Bryson makes it out to be. The book starts... more info
Bill Bryston:
Excellent book - very, very funny and very, very true! Should be read by ALL Americans.
Bryson's views on America:
A collection of essays on Bryson's experiences and views of America, sometimes annoyingly pretentious and pedantic (especially in the beginning), but more often clever, funny, and perfectly balanced between critical and appreciative of American culture. For me, part of the thrill is that Bryson is a local writer. Great, though slightly dated, but beautiful and humorous and original collection chronicling nature, American commercialism, American communities, and American personality and nostalgia. Grade: A-
The travel essay master:
If you've lived outside the US, come from another country or ever wondered what people from other places think of Americans and the US on our home turf then this is a book you have to read. If this was written by a foreigner I might have taken some offense to parts of it. Bryson is an American and these are his humorous takes on what he saw when he re-entered his own country to live here again after time spent in Europe. A fun read (and if you see yourself occasionally, laugh it off.)
