Scan barcode
A review by erboe501
Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
5.0
Game for a few weeks of European mishaps, Bill Bryson leaves the comforts of home to retrace the steps of his youthful trek through 1970s Europe. From the Northern Lights to the Bosphorus Sea, Bryson manages to meet some bizarrely friendly, hostile, and apathetic characters. There are the waiters who patently ignore Bryson when he eats, the hotel workers who overcharge him, the tourist office workers who pretend they don’t speak English. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that these people and situations actually occurred. Part of the beauty of Bryson’s writing is that the frustratingly mundane–waiting in one line after another for a bus ticket–turn hilarious under Bryson’s pen. Even if you haven’t traveled abroad, everyone has experienced the circuitous bureaucracy of state-run facilities and bad hotels. You sweat and labor right along with Bryson as he catches a train here and a bus there.
Many of the places Bryson returns to in the 1990s have changed significantly in his twenty year absence, thanks in a large part to the increase in tourism. I’d imagine that, if Bryson took a third trip around Europe today, another twenty years later, the landscape would appear even more altered. Bryson, a successful white American male, manages to be both irreverant and diplomatic in situations that might call for cultural sensitivity. He says it like it is: Naples is a filthy city; Austria is still pretty anti-Semitic. But he never assumes a superior, greater-than-thou tone, which makes his commentary feel authentic. He’s a foreigner in these countries, and his writing evokes this ‘fish out of water’ impression.
By candidly showing the beautiful and ugly aspects of travel, Bryson makes a strong case for the rewards of travel. You adapt to cultural challenges and experience other ways of life. And in the end, you become more grateful for your own bed back home.
Many of the places Bryson returns to in the 1990s have changed significantly in his twenty year absence, thanks in a large part to the increase in tourism. I’d imagine that, if Bryson took a third trip around Europe today, another twenty years later, the landscape would appear even more altered. Bryson, a successful white American male, manages to be both irreverant and diplomatic in situations that might call for cultural sensitivity. He says it like it is: Naples is a filthy city; Austria is still pretty anti-Semitic. But he never assumes a superior, greater-than-thou tone, which makes his commentary feel authentic. He’s a foreigner in these countries, and his writing evokes this ‘fish out of water’ impression.
By candidly showing the beautiful and ugly aspects of travel, Bryson makes a strong case for the rewards of travel. You adapt to cultural challenges and experience other ways of life. And in the end, you become more grateful for your own bed back home.