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A review by bonnybonnybooks
Notes from a Big Country by Bill Bryson
3.0
I think I can only take Bryson in small doses. He can be amusing, but he can also be so in love with his own joke it can be irritating. He feels like a younger brother who you sometimes just want to give a punch-in-the-arm to.
It’s not really helped by the fact that this book is about 20 years out of date. It is fun to see people having to deal with problems that today's technology has taken care of. Like, payphones and how hard it is to get to connect to the right number. Ha! Get a cellphone, Bryson!
It is sad how little has changed, though; Americans still have the reputation of being ignorant, violent, fat and lazy (but friendly!). The stereotype is a stereotype and therefore not accurate for many, but twenty years later, the world still sees us this way.
It is also hard to tell how many of these jokes were actually fresh at their time but now have become clichéd. Fancy coffee! Why is it so hard to get a standard cup of Joe these days? Now it’s all mocha cappuccino venti whip! Not even the sizes are in good ol’ English! This brings up another problem with Bryson: his exaggeration. I can’t trust him, because he often takes things to the extreme and out of reality. In his rant about being unable to get regular coffee (WHICH IS NOT TRUE EVERYONE HAS REAL COFFEE IT IS SUPER EASY TO ORDER, GOOD GOD MAN!) he has the barista ask him if he wants an americano and he is like FINE JUST GIVE ME COFFEE and the barista asks, “with whip?” NO ONE PUTS WHIP ON AMERICANO. That is only on mochas. Not even lattes (sadly). Americano is just espresso and water – whip is NOT standard and NO ONE asks about that. It is clear that Bryson is just taking the idea of Can’t Get Regular Coffee No More to its (il)logical extreme. I know comedians do this, and it’s a way to be funny, but I find it annoying. I want a humorous but realistic look at a situation. That is not what Bryson wants to give me.
He also sometimes takes an okay joke WAY TOO FAR. Like his tax schtick. Taxes! So confusing! The forms so incomprehensible! Okay, yes, make that joke Bryson! On the other hand you don’t need pages and pages and pages about it. It just gets extremely irritating, having someone unable to end a one-note joke. I just ended up skipping the ones like this (also: computer instructions. Computers! So crazy! Instructions! So incomprehensible! Might as well be written in Chinese, amirite?).
When Bryson calms down a little, he can be funny. And it is interesting to see America through British eyes (Bryson may be American, but he’s writing for a British audience). But it's not quite the biting wit I was looking for.
It’s not really helped by the fact that this book is about 20 years out of date. It is fun to see people having to deal with problems that today's technology has taken care of. Like, payphones and how hard it is to get to connect to the right number. Ha! Get a cellphone, Bryson!
It is sad how little has changed, though; Americans still have the reputation of being ignorant, violent, fat and lazy (but friendly!). The stereotype is a stereotype and therefore not accurate for many, but twenty years later, the world still sees us this way.
It is also hard to tell how many of these jokes were actually fresh at their time but now have become clichéd. Fancy coffee! Why is it so hard to get a standard cup of Joe these days? Now it’s all mocha cappuccino venti whip! Not even the sizes are in good ol’ English! This brings up another problem with Bryson: his exaggeration. I can’t trust him, because he often takes things to the extreme and out of reality. In his rant about being unable to get regular coffee (WHICH IS NOT TRUE EVERYONE HAS REAL COFFEE IT IS SUPER EASY TO ORDER, GOOD GOD MAN!) he has the barista ask him if he wants an americano and he is like FINE JUST GIVE ME COFFEE and the barista asks, “with whip?” NO ONE PUTS WHIP ON AMERICANO. That is only on mochas. Not even lattes (sadly). Americano is just espresso and water – whip is NOT standard and NO ONE asks about that. It is clear that Bryson is just taking the idea of Can’t Get Regular Coffee No More to its (il)logical extreme. I know comedians do this, and it’s a way to be funny, but I find it annoying. I want a humorous but realistic look at a situation. That is not what Bryson wants to give me.
He also sometimes takes an okay joke WAY TOO FAR. Like his tax schtick. Taxes! So confusing! The forms so incomprehensible! Okay, yes, make that joke Bryson! On the other hand you don’t need pages and pages and pages about it. It just gets extremely irritating, having someone unable to end a one-note joke. I just ended up skipping the ones like this (also: computer instructions. Computers! So crazy! Instructions! So incomprehensible! Might as well be written in Chinese, amirite?).
When Bryson calms down a little, he can be funny. And it is interesting to see America through British eyes (Bryson may be American, but he’s writing for a British audience). But it's not quite the biting wit I was looking for.