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 Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe :: 0380713802
Description
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Like many of his generation, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies -- in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. The result is Neither Here Nor There, an affectionate and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the way in Europe's most diverting and historic locales. Like many of his generation, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies--in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. The result is Neither Here Nor There, an affectionate and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the way in Europe's most diverting and historic locales. Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
This is one of my favorite humor/travel books. There are several sections that make me laugh out loud for pages, something not that many books can do. Over the space of a year, I've re-read it twice, and it remains as good and bright as ever. I've gone on to buy all Mr. Bryson's books, and have enjoed them all, but for me this is one of his very best.
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Author: Guest
Bill Bryson is a genius. This book is absolutely hilarious. I was never much of a reader, but i got this book for a present and when i started reading it i couldnt put it down. This is a must read. Bill Bryson, please right more (italy, islands, etc.)!!!
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Author: Guest
Why not just read Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad instead? Bryson's account reads like a bad rip-off at many points, and while Twain's mockery of a typical American tourist in Europe is clearly coming from love of and respect for his fellow Americans, Bryson comes off as snobbish and superior, wishing to distance himself from all things American, quick to point out that he is an ex-pat. Also, Twain is funnier. Of course.
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Author: Guest
You must know by now that I never write a bad review about this guy. In this book, we take a whirlwind tour of Europe. You can read the cover blurbs about how funny and perceptive he is, and how skillful he is with the language, and how eminently readable he is. I agree with every word. But I'd like to mention that this isn't some snooty tour guide or gushing forth bubblehead. He's an average guy who won't hesitate to tell you what sucks, or leave a place that he doesn't like, or bend over backwards to say nice things. He'll bash anybody, himself included. He's refreshingly honest.
Plus, if you had it in your head that Europe was just one homogenous place, or if perhaps you've heard a whole bunch of national or cities names and characteristics and can't keep them all straight, this book will fix that right up. In addition, if you're overseas but in a country nowhere near Europe, perhaps some place in Asia, you can still enjoy some very familiar situations. In case you haven't guessed, I highly recommend this book.
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Author: Guest
In 1990 Bill Bryson set out to "do Europe". He says that his motivation was to relive his experiences from tours in Europe in 1972 and 1973 when he was a young student wandering around Europe with a backpack.
In reality it seems as if the primary reason for Bill Bryson to do this trip was so that he could then write a funny book about the trip.
"Neither Here Nor There" is, in fact, a very funny book, at least in the beginning. Bill Bryson can describe situations in a very humorous way, and he's willing to make fun of himself, as well as everything around him.
Unfortunately, after a while the humor wears thin. Then it wears very thin. Then you begin to dissect the humor, and realize that you've been had.
Bill Bryson's method of traveling is to emulate the kind of tourism we all like to ridicule. He typically arrives by train in a new city in the evening. He has no hotel reservation so he has to spend time finding a hotel that is not really what he wanted. He sees "the sights" that one is supposed to see in that city. He makes no effort to get in touch with the local people, to learn about their lives, or to understand their country and society. He spends typically 2-3 days in each city and then goes to work on figuring out how to get to the next city or country on his list, which often leads to further complications.
This is obviously not the way to travel if you're writing a travel book. Nobody in their right mind would want to read about this kind of traveling.
But Bill Bryson is not writing a travel book, he's writing a funny book, and he has a sure-fire recipe:
1. Do things in problematic ways, and then make fun of all the trials and tribulations that result.
2. Mix in lots of flashbacks to the trips of your youth, with much juvenile humor related to the drives that young men are so driven by.
3. Feign incomprehension about everything foreign and satirize everything that is unfamiliar.
4. Make funny remarks intended to reinforce national prejudices.
This last type of humor can be especially tiring. Here are a few examples to illustrate what I mean:
"Let's face it, the French Army couldn't beat a girls' hockey team." (pg 32)
"The (German) women still don't shave their armpits. ... They all look so beautiful and stylish, and then they lift up their arms and there's a Brillo pad hanging there." (pg 91)
"In Norway, three people and a bottle of beer is a party; in Sweden the national sport is suicide." (pg 97)
"But the most preposterous law of all, a law so pointless as to scamper along the outer reaches of the surreal, is the Swedish one that requires motorists to drive with their headlights on during the daytime." (pg 110)
"I love the way the Italians park. You turn any street corner in Rome and it looks as if you've just missed a parking competition for blind people." (pg 123)
In conclusion, if you're someone who "did Europe" in your youth and you want to relive fond memories in a humorous way, then you may well like this book. Most other readers will probably start out laughing, then smiling, then wondering why the jokes seem to have lost their appeal, and finally ending up wishing they'd picked a real travel book or a real humorous book.
Rennie Petersen
PS. Just for the record, here is a list of the places covered: Norway (Hammerfest, Oslo), France (Paris), Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, Spa, Durbuy), Germany (Aachen, Cologne, Hamburg), Holland (Amsterdam), Denmark (Copenhagen), Sweden (Gothenburg, Stockholm), Italy (Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Florence, Milan, Como), Switzerland (Brig, Geneva, Bern), Liechtenstein, Austria (Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna), Yugoslavia (Split, Sarajevo, Belgrade), Bulgaria (Sofia), Turkey (Istanbul).
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