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A review by kit_fox
Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
1.0
I normally like Bill Bryson's writing, but this book falls utterly flat for me. It's like those black comedies that seem to miss out on the "comedy" part and just end up being bleak; Bryson's point in this rambling narrative appears to be that travelling is enjoyable enough as a pastime, it's just the people, the places, the languages, the cultures, the food, and the actual travelling itself that spoil it.
Halfway through the book, I wondered whether I was interrogating the text from the wrong perspective, and tried to frame it as a commentary on nostalgia and memory - on how going back was not the same as never leaving, and on whether renewed experience will ever stand up to the rose-tint of memory.
It didn't work, though.
Halfway through the book, I wondered whether I was interrogating the text from the wrong perspective, and tried to frame it as a commentary on nostalgia and memory - on how going back was not the same as never leaving, and on whether renewed experience will ever stand up to the rose-tint of memory.
It didn't work, though.