Notes from a Small Island

Rating:
Summary: Not Quite Perfect!
Review: The thing that I liked best about "Notes From a Small Island" is the fact that by the time you have finished reading it Bill Bryson feels like an old friend. He is completely open with the reader and is not afraid to laugh at himself. Most of the humour comes from the fact that everything he says about the British is so true! I know that I often fall into the "mustn't grumble" category!

I have decided against giving this book 5 stars, however, because Bill does tend to whine on rather about his obsession with cities and how modern architecture is ruining them. This book had me falling about in fits of laughter, especially the scene with the waterproofs, but it would have been ten times better if Bill had just cut out some of the rubbish.

In conclusion, however, this book is a brilliant and enjoyable read, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Addressed as much to Americans as to the British
Review: Bill Bryson first came to the attention of the British public through the readings from his book of a journey across the USA, 'The Lost Continent'. That was on BBC Radio Four, it was back in 1993, and it was read by Kerry Shale. Unfortunately, such was the impact of those readings that for much of the British public, Kerry Shale still IS Bill Bryson. Shale has much the same cynicism as Bryson, but his voice is tougher, and a bit more no-nonsense.

So when you first listen to Bryson reading 'Notes from a Small Island', it comes as a bit of a shock that Bryson's true voice is more softly-spoken, and a little camper. To my ear, his accent sounds a little more southern states than I would expect from Iowa, but that shows you how much I know. Bryson never tries to hide his American accent -- even when imitating old English crones or drunken Scotsmen.

Bryson gives the view of the outsider, despite his having lived in England for 20 years when he wrote the book. If he makes the odd error of judgement, we forgive him. But most of the time he is dead right about the British towns and cities he visits during his seven-week tour. He exposes our quaint eccentricities -- both the ones we knew we had and some that we didn't.

My feeling is that Bryson is so popular with the British listener because it is clear that, despite his criticisms, he loves the place and the people. This is no gratuitous American 'I love the UK' simply to buy popularity -- even the foreign tennis players at Wimbledon have worked out that the quickest way to our affections is to say this is their favourite venue. Bryson's love of Great Britain is deeply felt.

In this audio CD, he takes us to many places we'd never even heard of, let alone places that we'd told ourselves we must visit some day. And he's so enthusiastic about landscapes, townscapes and buildings, even if our hotels and guest-houses often disappoint him. Once you've heard this, no doubt you'll be making a mental note to find the forgotten Roman villa that he had to hack through brambles to get to. And you'll be strengthening your resolve to visit Durham and the Burrell Collection, and find out much more about that mad old Duke who lived almost entirely underground.

On this audio CD, you get five CDs, mostly uninterruptedby music. (For no good reason, after over four CDs of zero background effects, music suddenly seeps into track #9 on CD #5 when he visits John O'Groats. I was so surprised that I had to stop my car and search under the driver's seat for a hidden radio.)

Warmly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Fallen for Britain
Review: Bill Bryson's: "Notes from a Small Island" are about an American's love of Britain. After having lived and worked (!) in Britain for twenty years and immediately before going back to the US, Bryson embarks on a last trip around the enchanted island. His aim is to search for the true origin of his deep affection. What he finds is a country which most British people themselves have already written off. However, those of us who believe that despite all its potential insufficiencies this Britain, an enchanted and blessed island, must still be alive somewhere, will read Bryson's travel account with tremendous relief. "This Britain is still there", is the message of the book though it is not the Britain of imperial glamour ruling three quarters of the Earth! Bryson does not spare us its unpleasant traits such as the slums in the big cities, decaying seaside resorts, shortages of staple goods on Saturday afternoons and inexplicable railway fares. However, on the other side, it is the Britain of so many pleasant things that make life worth living: cricket matches on Sunday afternoons, village parties in summer, country lanes that "will dance you down to Devon"(Greeba Bridget-Jones in "English Lanes"), to mention only a few examples of why this is still an enchanted island. If most British people really look upon the development of their country in the 20th century as a "chronic failure" as Bryson puts it, then his finds reveal that they are wrong and that their attitude is probably due to a depressive mood resulting from the loss of an empire which they even "dismantled in a generally benign and enlightened way". In considering all the traits of this country whether ugly or pleasant, Bryson proves that his love is genuine. It is a love for better or worse! Therefore, for all of you who like it there too, who "like it more then they can tell", reading the "Notes from a Small Island" is a must and all the others "mustn't grumble!"

Rating:
Summary: Nostalgia form a Foriegn Friend.
Review: I read this book during a trip in the USA, not because I was missing England, heck no I was glad to be seeing the back of blighty for a while! I read it because I was intrigued by the amount of Americans I met on my trip who beautifully and politely, seemed to find ME endlessly interesting.
I would not have gained such interest at home had I walked down Oxford Street stark naked!
Mr Bryson helped me to understand why the difference is so and why it is so captivating. He did this from both the perspective of being a fascinated and enthusiastic American and an eccentric and repressed Brit, for he truly is a blend of both. The fascination our two countries have for each other is based as much on our similarity as it is our differencs and yet the similarities and differences are always bedfellows.
A great example of this is the sheer volume of Americans prepared to identify themselves as "Anglophiles", I love the US with equal passion, as I know do most of my kinsmen, and yet I find that hard to say to other Brits; it just seems overly expressive and un-British somehow, and I know it would be recieved with embarressed indifference! Particularly if I dared to suggest I was an Americophile! Weirdly, again, this is as odd as it is completely understandable!
While in the states I noticed the cheeriness of your national psyche, the confidence, the interest in people, the strangeness of local customs and the comfort to be gained in enjoying the differences and becoming part of the "different"
This was exactly Mr Bryson's experience in reverse in this book, it is an exquisitely funny, deliciously evocative and sentimental journey through my homeland and I have to say he, for me, captures the essence of Britian and Britishness perfectly. He made me howl at our insanity, cringe at our emotional indifference (bourn largely out of inbred embarressment) and swell with a tearful sense of pride that was overwhelming at times. It put my journey to the US and feelings for my home land, into crystal clear perspective.
He gives a wise and decisive voice to the odd and quirky specialness of our two nations relationship.
This surely signifies the awesome power of Mr Bryson's pen.

Rating:
Summary: An honest, hilarious and rather true diary!
Review: I saved reading this book for my lastest trip to England, and finished it on the plane home. Bryson gives a fantastic, tongue-in-cheek description of small town, and well, large town britain. It was just as I experienced it as well!! I noted some "Bryson-isms" as I travelled and visited some of the places mentioned in the book. I can't say I'd reccommend it for a first time visitor to England, but if you have been there, it can take you back in a second, reminding you of the great and not-so-great-but-still-hilarious things if you look at it through the authors eyes. Very enjoyable, will definitely read it again!!

Rating:
Summary: Bill Bryson's Best...
Review: I have read all of Bill Bryson's books and this one is the best. It made me laugh,chortle, snort, chuckle....and yes....the last chapter made me cry.
I am an American who has traveled in the UK a dozen times and I love the people, the inconveniences, the weather......all of it.

Rating:
Summary: The warning was correct
Review: In the edition of the book I read there was a warning not to read on the bus, on in public. You will begin snorting and chuckling. It's a funny, sweet book that make the 'small island' travels of Paul Theroux and Jonathan Rabin seem not as much fun. I pick Bill Bryson as my travelling companion.



Rating:
Summary: Tepid
Review: Maybe its me, but I just don't get Mr Bryson's books so it seems.
Having been to Australia I picked up his version of his travels there and found it at best mildly amusing, and at worst inaccurate and banal, but as I'm open to the idea that maybe I started on the wrong book, I picked up this one as a secondary attempt to see why people like him so much.
Now I know that negative reviews on here seem to be frowned upon, and hardly ever classed as helpful, but I'm struggling to find a positive. Yes, I know its not supposed to be a reference book, and is an individuals projection of the aspects of his adventure around the Uk which he found amusing / noteworthy and indeed, with a few pints in the pub and a few mates, the stories told may raise a chuckle or three, but in a book? Perhaps im just lacking an affinity with the author, but then... isn't that what the books he writes are designed to create? In which case, for me at least, it just isn't happening.


Rating:
Summary: Funny in parts but mostly tedious
Review: Too bad this book wasn't 60% shorter. I think Bryson must have had a minimum word count he had to meet. Some parts of this book are laugh-out-loud funny, but these are needles in a haystack. Throughout much of the audio version of this book I just zoned while Bryson whined about crummy architecture. (We GOT it: socialists make crappy buildings.) Thanks to Bryson I have improved my drivetime daydreaming skills.
I expected the book to be an analysis of the Brits from an American point of view. This is not Toqueville, however, and since Bryson spent so much time in Britain, I don't think he offers the right perspective. His view is tainted by his 20 years as an expatriate. (His book on the U.S. from the view of a returning exile I expect is much more pertinent.)
Bryson loses many opportunities. He doesn't talk to anybody. He doesn't approach the book from the perspective of a prospective American tourist either. Rather I think his book was his way of doing one last trip through Britain while deducting it as a business expense.

Rating:
Summary: Come pay us a visit
Review: I'm not sure what drove the previous reviewer to describe London as a "Dickensian slum", nor why any light-hearted look at Britain would leave you "feeling angry". I can only assume he was here looking up ancestors round Wormwood and Holloway.

London is one of the world's older cities and centre of the world's fourth largest economy, so it's going to have a little dirt under its fingernails. At the same time it boasts a larger percentage of parkland and more museums, plus the oldest museum, than any other capital. For the most part it's a genuinely nice place to take the kids. Please don't be put off.

And please don't go thinking this book dwells on London. It doesn't. Bryson travels the length and breadth of the country, covering all the things he feels makes Britain what it is, for better or for worse. The two downsides to his very personal approach are firstly, that anyone unfamiliar with or plain not interested in Britain (in which case, why are you here?) may find their mind wandering, and secondly, that ole Bill comes across as being in a bad mood for whole sections of the book. But like I said, it's a personal trip, and being incredulous at other people's imbecility -- in this case, ours -- is often what he does best.

As other reviewers have noted, nothing he says is ever presented with any malice and he often displays an enthusiasm that greatly exceeds that of the natives. Is he mad? Quite possibly. Given the fact that he's only recently moved back, we should expect a sequel...