Notes From A Small Island review
Aug. 8th, 2008 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearEverybody raves about Bill Bryson, and Notes From A Small Island proclaimed itself to be "laugh-out-loud funny" and advised me not to read it in public for fear of scaring people with hysterical outbursts.
Now, I'm well aware that my reaction to things deemed funny by the majority is not generally uproarious, but in this case I can't even appreciate that other people might find Notes From A Small Island gut-bustingly hilarious.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy it - at least for the first half, I found it well-written, gently amusing, and mildly diverting. It did make me sad, though, because I think a lot of the things Bryson described as "quintessentially British" in 1994, are rapidly declining - such as general politeness to strangers, and the ability to contentedly make do with very little.
In the second half, though, Bryson became increasingly mysanthropic and whingey, and I found several of his obvservations and generalisations to be in quite poor taste, or very unfair. He was mean about Oxford, which is difficult to forgive for me, and seemed to spend the vast majority of the narrative complaining about every aspect of his trip.
The conclusion was quite heartwarming, I agree with him that Britain has a great deal to be proud of (as well as a fair few things to be not so proud of), and it was interesting to see things explored from a foreigner's point of view, but I don't think I'll be putting the rest of his back catalogue on my wishlist.
Now, I'm well aware that my reaction to things deemed funny by the majority is not generally uproarious, but in this case I can't even appreciate that other people might find Notes From A Small Island gut-bustingly hilarious.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy it - at least for the first half, I found it well-written, gently amusing, and mildly diverting. It did make me sad, though, because I think a lot of the things Bryson described as "quintessentially British" in 1994, are rapidly declining - such as general politeness to strangers, and the ability to contentedly make do with very little.
In the second half, though, Bryson became increasingly mysanthropic and whingey, and I found several of his obvservations and generalisations to be in quite poor taste, or very unfair. He was mean about Oxford, which is difficult to forgive for me, and seemed to spend the vast majority of the narrative complaining about every aspect of his trip.
The conclusion was quite heartwarming, I agree with him that Britain has a great deal to be proud of (as well as a fair few things to be not so proud of), and it was interesting to see things explored from a foreigner's point of view, but I don't think I'll be putting the rest of his back catalogue on my wishlist.
