Notes from a Small Island

by Bill Bryson

Release Date: 01 May, 1997

Edition: Paperback

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Funny But Flawed

Bill Bryson is an excellent writer. His skills are matched by few writing today, certainly in comedy. He is an American who moved to England in the early 70's, worked as a journalist there and decided to move back to The United States after becoming a successful writer.

This book chronicles his farewell journey around Great Britain and notes his humorous observations. He does this remarkably well. His biting humor and excellent, graphic descriptive are a pleasure to read. The situations he finds himself in and the observations he makes are almost always very funny if not very accurate.

Americans, shelf your patriotism when reading this book. A lot of what the author writes is directed toward a U.K. reading audience so misrepresentations and fallacies abound. A good deal of cliche and stereotypical depiction of life and the people in the United States appears on every page a comparison is made. Once you acclimate to the stilt, you will enjoy the humor.

For the reader in the U.K., know a lot of what Bill Bryson writes about his own country is fictional. He uses typecast people and places often and sometimes departs the actual. America is not much like what he writes, thought one could find such a place or person in America.

As for his observations, some truly are scathing and unfair. Some are literally attacks, even if they to elicit a giggle or two. His pen does drip poison from time to time in the descriptive of some individuals and their appearance and activities. This will turn some readers off entirely.

This book does, surprisingly, gives a clear, concise history of politics and commerce in England that is objective. An unexpected bonus, though a wry and humourous one.

A good read, though a bit acidic at times, funny and very well written, give it a try and keep your nationalism in check, you will enjoy it.

Thank God for Bill!

There are very few writers of whom you think, I'd like to have a beer with that guy.. Bill Bryson is one such however. His ability to poke fun at us all, Brits, Americans, Europeans, and any number of other nationalities, is remarkable... and yet he does it with a kind of wicked charm that makes it nigh on impossible to take offence. Bryson caused me great embarassment when I read this book on a south-bound train from Leeds, as I kept emitting snorts of laughter which resulted in my fellow passengers moving to other carriages.

I love this book, and I love its American successor, *Notes from a Big Country* too. In this one, his whimsical tour through Britain and his reflections on what makes us the people and place that we are is truly hilarious. In *The Lost Continent*, Bryson does the same to small town America as he subjects his dear mum's old chevette to long, long journeys east and west of his home in Des Moines, Iowa.

Bryson has respect for those things which are most valuable in any country, but little respect for the traditional tourist trail and sentimental tripe. He can surely claim honorary Brit status, should he and the family (Mrs Bryson and the children, including "little Jimmy", the child that never was) ever plan to return to the UK.

*A Walk in the Woods* is also well worth a read, for those who got to know Bryson's old school friend Stephen Katz in the chronicle of their adolescent meander through Europe, *Neither Here Nor There*. In *A Walk in the Woods*, Bryson and Katz walk the Appalachian Trail, aka the AT, together over the summer. Bill is a hardier man than he looks!

But of them all, *Notes from a Small Island* remains my favourite, because it reminds me why despite all my moans, I still love this country. Those who say Americans have no sense of irony have obviously never read Bill Bryson's books; he has it in buckets.