Customer Reviews
Europe: it's funnier than you might suppose - By: T. Bobley, 03 Feb 2007 
Every so often, flicking through the BBC radio stations, I've hit Kerry Shale or Bill Bryson reading from one of Bill's books. At that point I stop flicking & sit & listen. The furrow disappears from my brow & a smile appears on my face. The smile ratchets up into a grin & from time to time a laugh erupts. It happens every time Bill Bryson's thoughts & adventures come out of my radio. But I'm no longer prepared to toggle back & forth between BBC radio 4 & BBC radio 7 just hoping for a bit of Bill Bryson. I commenced a search for an audiobook & found this. Instead of the usual 10 to 20 minute snatch of radio broadcast, I've listened to a full 6 hours, on 5 discs & achieved a serene sense of having been entertained for long, blissful, uninterrupted acres of time. I've travelled from Hammerfestin Norway via France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia & lots of placesin between, to end upin Turkey - & seen, heard, smelled & tasted the places & met the people through his descriptions. He's a terrible mickey-taker but still conveys a reasonably positive impression of most of the people he encounters. Even where the people seem a bit sullen & unhelpful there are reasons supplied (usually). For example, the folksin Yugoslavia had been struggling to make even a modest living & had little enough to smile about at the time of his visit. In any case, the main victim of his barbed humour through the whole journey is himself. He soaks up the splendour & atmosphere of the fabulous places he stays, points out their faults, extols the virtues of the peoples & enthusiastically recounts their absurdities. He was only truly scathing about the people of one country and, although I haven't travelled very much, it was one of the few countries I'd actually visited (school skiing holiday many years ago) & I found those people very nice. That just goes to show that you have to take people as you find them, enjoy this audiobook for its entertainment value & not base your beliefs about whole nations on the behaviour of a few (probably) unrepresentative individuals.
I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook & highly recommend it. And now I'm off to choose my next Bill Bryson - The Lost Continent or Notes from a Small Island ... can't quite decide yet ...
Often hysterically funny and quite acerbic - By: David Hinman, 15 Dec 2005 Bryson isn't your typical travel author. He makes an effort to describe the places he visits, but does soin broad strokes. It's like an impressionist painting more than any attempt at detailed realism. He spends 1/3 of his time on the history of the places he visits & it's contemporary reality, 1/3 of his time on what sees & experiences, & 1/3 of his time on how he interprets what he sees as a confused foreigner.
For example, Bryson often goes on at length about the architecture of a building he loves or hates. He'll then describe when such building was erected & how it has been treated over the years since. Then ruminate briefly on how he can't understand the host nation's predeliction for building carparks so as to most efficently despoil an area's natural beauty. He'll finish up by wondering how such perverse actions are the nature of humanity.
Bryson writes with incredible ease, an incredible self-deprecating humor, a lust for travel & new adventures, & an overall wonder of the world around him. You get the impression he's just happy to be alive & could write with joy regarding his most recent attempt to buy chewing gum.
Some people Bill Bryson obnoxious & offensive. But if you like sarcastic & droll humor you'll love Neither Here Nor There.
