|
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away (平装)
by Bill Bryson
| Category:
Travel, Travel writing, Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Poignant, funny, true, sometimes making you laugh out loud, this book provides a wonderful look at American idiosyncrasies. |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
|
| |
AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 18 items |
|
|
R. Chaffey (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
After reading and enjoying Notes From a Small Island, I was looking forward to Bryson's witticisms in regards to every day life in America. Although an American, having spent twenty odd years in England gives Bryson a unique perspective on what makes America, and Americans, tick. I'm a Stranger Here Myself is a collection of essays Bryson wrote for an English audience; but they lack none of their charm when read by an Anglophile American.
I'm a Stranger Here Myself is and odd conglomeration of essays that deal with a range of topics: small-town America, shopping, the inconvenience of our numerous "conveniences", and several entries on his own ineptness when it comes to technology. In each of his essays Bryson is a bit of a wanderer, starting in one direction, only to go off on a tangent. Usually he's able to bring himself back to the point, and can even poke fun at himself for doing so. His wanderings are what sets his style and what generates the largest laughs or head shakes of disbelief.
While Bryson is at times critical of what happens in America, I'm a Stranger Here Myself is a loving portrait of a revered country. However, Bryson's perspective is one of a man living a blessed life. He now resides in a virtually crime-free small New Hampshire town and grew up in small-town Iowa. His essays sometimes lack the experiences that growing up or residing in other areas might offer. However, due to his extensive travels, Bryson's perspective is truly unique and a joy to read. |
|
|
E. Schwartz (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
Bryson originally wrote this collection of essays on the quirks of the American lifestyle as a weekly column in a British publication. Each chapter is a a single week's very short musing, anecdote, or tirade, succinct, funny, and wildly divergent in subject from the previous one. It's easy to keep thinking, "just three more pages," and suddenly finish the whole thing in one sitting...which is just what I did. But it's probably better enjoyed in small morsels.
The book suffers some from the serial format - Bryson himself attests to how hard it was for him to come up with good content under time pressure, and some of the resulting material is hackneyed. Bryson's bellyaching about lawsuits, taxes, the postal service, bureaucrats, consumerism, junk food, malls, police officers, and computer usability is nothing we haven't heard before. But the tales of his personal bumblings make even the most dull topic an entertaining read. Bryson's friendly, self-deprecating sense of humor always comes through, and consistently made me smile. While there's no narrative thread, the recurring themes, like Bryson's yearnings for old-fashioned, small-town Americana, do give the book a sense of unity. And some of his observations were fresh and novel.
At any rate, if one story fails to amuse, there is always the next one, just a few pages later. Anyone who likes Bryson will get a kick out of it; in fact, it's hard to imagine anyone who wouldn't.
|
|
|
S. Griffin (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
Bill Bryson continually makes me laugh out loud. My neighbors must think I'm loony. I'm a Stranger Here Myself chronicles Bryson's return to the United States after living abroad for twenty years. Each chapter is actually a column he wrote for a publication in Great Britain about his experiences in the good ol' USA since coming back. He writes about things that have changed since he left, things that are the same, things that are in a state of flux... His exasperation at some things, including his own foibles, is hysterical. There are so many extremely funny passages it would be impossible to try to pick out some highlights. Read this book! Also recommended: Bill Bryson's 'A Walk in the Woods,' another comical adventure. |
|
|
Michael Price (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
I read this book last summer at my apartment's pool. It was embarrassing. I couldn't help laughing out loud. I must have looked like a total idiot. After reading In a Sunburned Country (great) and Walk in the Woods (great) I had to read anything this guy wrote which led to those awkward looks at my local pool. Bryson had grown up in the states but moved to England for 20 or so years and then recently moved back to the U.S. He was writing for a local U.S. newspaper about the difference between America and England, and also about the differences between America now and America 20 years ago. He decided to publish these into a book. Every story is 3 to 4 pages and funny. This is a perfect book just to pick up once in a while and read a passage. Or you can just devour it down like I did. I have read Bryson's "The lost continent" which was great even though it was written 20 years ago and I read The Mother Tongue which if you ever wanted to know the history of the English language this is your book. Although crammed with info Bryson actually makes something so hard to read funny. One of my life’s dreams is to have Bill Bryson take me on a vacation. |
|
|
Brad Donahue (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
I have recently been on something of a Bill Bryson binge. After having read The Mother Tongue and Short History of Nearly Everything, which are two of his more scholarly-oriented books, I decided to try this book (perhaps it should be noted that I have yet to read A Walk in the Woods; this title just appealed to me more). The stories are often clever, and despite his complaining Bryson rarely, if ever, leaves the threshold of good intentions. You have to realize that he is a reasonable man, and some of these irrational rants are merely for entertainment's sake and should not be analyzed too closely. That said, I agree with the editorial review in that sometimes he enters Dave Barry-like hyperbole, something that I personally find cheap and overdone, although Dave Barry sells lots of books, so many people must think that style is funny. Personally, the more subtle humor, such as the little pet names for his wife he inserts in what are supposedly transcripts of actual conversations with her, that amuses me, as well as his joyful musings on American life. Sure, this isn't too profound, but it manages to be intelligent and critical, while maintaining a whimsical air. I can just picture of Bill with a content smirk on his face while writing these articles in his house in Hanover. To sum it all up, Bill Bryson seems like the kind of guy I would love to have over for dinner, assuming he is as entertaining in person as he is in this book. |
|
|
A British reader (MSL quote), UK
<2006-12-31 00:00>
Bryson, in my view, has managed to pull off another excellent piece of work (but with a little difficulty this time round). When I first read that the book was simply made up of columns Bill Bryson had written for an English newspaper, I was a bit curious as to what the quality would be like. The book is a collection of short columns written over an eighteen month period on the aspects of American life.
It starts off brilliantly, dipping in quality a bit in the middle, but comes back strong again towards the end. During the opening chapters, my worries on the quality of the book were immediately pushed aside, but later on throughout the book, it looked to me like Bryson was being pushed into writing about subjects he didn't want to write about, as if his ideas had dried up. I was almost about to stop reading it altogether, but a few brilliant chapters set the ball rolling again, and it finishes on a high.
The main attraction of this book is the ease of reading. Each chapter takes only 5 - 10 minutes to complete. If you would like a book that you can just pick up at any odd time to read for a few minutes every now and then, then this book is for you. Beware though, once you read one funny chapter, you'll want to keep reading, and reading. Bryson's easy style also adds to the accessibility of this book.
Bill Bryson isn't an American who glorifies all aspects of American life (like many of the Hollywood movies for example), but simply gives an honest account on how he pictures his own nation to be (though he can very cynical at times, funny, but cynical). I find it interesting, being British, how Bryson often compares his home nation with mine (but as he is writing for an English newspaper, he often seems to unfairly tip the scales in Britian's favor, but again, with an add of humor)
I'm A Stranger Here Myself further enhances Bill Bryson's reputation as the funniest travel writer in modern times.
|
|
|
B. Skillman (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
I enjoy his writing, and was still entertained by this book. But the tone caught me off guard. Now, I know that this was written for a British audience, out of weekly articles thrown together for light amusement. And since it was a weekly article, the complaining wouldn't get old so fast. That all said, it only makes sense that, this is probably more entertaining to a British audience, and to be taken in small doses.
Maybe it was the chronic exaggeration, but I just didn't relate to a lot of what he considered the American experience. And because of that, I didn't get a lot of the humor. Furthermore, if you're American, you feel like the butt of the joke more often then not in the book. Teamed with the fact that you may think he is misleading foreigners with his misconceptions and exaggerations, it almost feels like anti-American propaganda.
And the bitterness - a few times anyway - has such a genuine fee, which makes the book hardly lighthearted from my perspective. Anyway, the bitterness is kind of hard to understand because, a lot of the book is spent decrying the effects of American convenience, but then constantly complaining that American life should be easier. Not to add that he doesn't seem to admit that in any country - particularly where you have many individual law makers with different views, addressing only a handful of issues at a time - you will have all kinds of contradictions and non sensical laws; Britain included. Even his views on American norms didn't always relate with me. He also makes sweeping generalizations. For example, he essentially labels the post office as bumbling because they returned a letter to him that he didn't put the address on, and implies that it isn't in the same league as the British version as far as mailing letters goes. Which, I guess is said with tongue in cheek; but then, maybe not. And it's all based on one experience he had. I'd call that a misconception. Some of his experiences though, are right on and funny, albeit caricatures, on American life and norms. Still others are only relatable to foreigners and immigrants, and all those who think everything was perfect back when they were kids.
If you take his complaints in the context of being written for British entertainment, in a weekly essay format, and that realistically he was probably struggling just to pop out an article, it's pretty good. His writing is, as always, witty and entertaining. And exaggeration is a key to his humor. So his tone with American life probably isn't as severe as his essays would make it seem. But who knows.
Either way, this book is more for his fans who just can't get enough of Bryson I think. And with all those things working against it with regards to my opinion, I still enjoyed it, even with it's disagreeable content, because I just like his writing style, top to bottom. And can't wait to read some other Bryson work. |
|
|
Xoe Li Lu (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
At one point in Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself, the author's wife proclaims "You're always complaining in that column." I couldn't agree more. While some may be amused by the constant and often unwarranted grumblings of an unappreciative 40-something, I found myself searching hard for traces of humor and wit. Comprised of a series of articles on "life in the US" written for a British newspaper upon his return to the States after 20 years in England, Bryson's book comes off as a whiny oversimplification of situations that are generally not funny and oftentimes barely even mildly amusing. While the book contains brief moments of truly clever humor, it is largely filled with exaggerated accounts of Bryson's inability to cope with life in general (I have the feeling that he didn't do much better in Merry Old England). Bryson's articles hint that Americans are over-stimulated, unappreciative, under-educated clods who don't hold a candle to the British. After several chapters, this becomes increasingly annoying. Many of the essays deal with situations or sentiments that simply are not true of life in the U.S. In his rants about the IRS and state and Federal budgets, it is clear that he doesn't have a clue what he is talking about - and the end result is just not funny. I have lived abroad myself and cannot help but feel that Bryson was shamelessly pandering to his British audience when he wrote these articles. I skipped many of the essays because they were too whiney, too annoying or too off the mark.
I was truly disappointed by this book, especially since I had heard how funny and witty Bryson is - perhaps his abilities are not properly highlighted in "I'm a Stranger Her Myself." I found this book to be a collection of boring complaints and meaningless commentary on mundane and oft-times wrongly portrayed aspects of supposed life in the United States. He states at one point in the book that he doesn't "understand most things." No kidding. Maybe if he knew what he was talking about, he could inject some more humor into his writing. Or maybe his wife should give writing a try...
(A negative review. MSL remarks.)
|
|
|
|
1 2 Total 2 pages 18 items |
|
|
|
|
|
|
