Travel to Europe

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

Format: Paperback
Author: Bill Bryson
ReleaseDate: 06 April, 1999
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Rating:

A Xenophobic Traveler's Story
This is like one man's mid-life crisis dream of re-living an adolescent fantasy journey, with little real thought about the people in the places he visits. I have enjoyed several of Bryson's books in the past so finally got around to this tour of Europe; I'm sorry I did. Sources for drink--often LOTS of drink--and the occasional museum are the primary focus of his entire journey, and the xenophobic comments that pass for humor here get very old very quickly.

Probably the saddest part of the entire book was being reminded that less than 20 years ago, he could visit Sarajevo and watch families playing quietly in a park. For anyone like me who is just now considering reading this, don't. There are far better, more current travel books and far better Bryson books out there, so do yourself a favor and skip this one.

with dry/goofball/neurotic humor, this democratically makes fun of all cultures
There's very little dialogue and almost no social interaction outside of Bryson dealing with travel logistics- getting bus tickets, checking into hotels, ordering dinner. While Bryson does offer some historical context for the places he travels (especially in relation to WW II), whether you like this book or not depends far more on your sense of humor. Personally, though, his dry/goofball/neurotic sense of humor made me laugh out loud time after time, and I found myself more surprised during short passages where he was relatively serious than the relentless humor. Only if you're obsessed with political correctness, he may offend you, but he is democratic in his targets, and even pokes fun at himself (for example, describing his temper tantrum in Sweden after having to pay for a failed phone call).

Some specific examples include him describing the cow as the perfect pet, a slapstick scene involving the meatballs rolling out of his sandwich ("like sailors abandoning a burning ship"), a woman on the train who "looked as if she hadn't smiled since 1937 and who spent the entire journey watching me as if she had seen my face on a wanted poster", and another train ride when he was "spreading out the map on my knees in its full crinkly glory, to the undisguised irritation of the old lady next to me, who hoomphed her bosom and made exasperated noises every time a corner of paper waggled in her direction. "

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Almost unbearably funny

Maybe that's why there are so many books. Someone once said that you can fake intelligence, but you can't fake wit. . . but so few funny ones.
I for one think the world needs a lot more funny books.
I sometimes get sick of reading analytical nonfiction, sick of reading serious descriptive prose, sick of the things I read always demanding something from me, whether its my earnest attention or my logic and reasoning.
Sometimes, I just want to read something that will make laugh.
That's when I'm grateful for Bill Bryson.
This guy is hilarious.
Forget how cranky and irritable his writing makes him seem, forget his biases, forget that the subjects of his books sometimes seem like little more than loose structures built solely to be ornamented by jokes, forget that his book jackets always mention that he's one of Newsweek's celebrated "boomers," forget all that.
Instead, just read his work, and take careful note at the number of times you have trouble breathing due to how hard you're laughing, at the number of times someone asks you if you're okay because they're not quite sure if you--you with the book over there--are laughing or sobbing, at the number of times you almost wake up the sleeping person next to you with your uncontrollable guffawing.
This book has little more going in the way of plot than the loose story of Bill Bryson traveling aimlessly around Europe, but it is funny. Hilarious.
If you have any sense of humor at all, you will laugh at it, I can almost guarantee it.

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