I'm a Stranger Here Myself : Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away.

by Bill Bryson

Release Date: 04 May, 1999

Edition: Audio CD

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Not Bryson's Best

Bill Bryson is an incredible writer who usually chooses the most interesting subjects. But I think he missed a little on this one. The book is a collection of columns he wrote in a newspaper, all of which are about three pages long. After I read one, I felt as though I had read them all. Bryson makes observations about his homeland, America, upon returning from living abroad. Some of his observations are funny, some are profound. A few are both funny and profound, but a lot of it is niether. His writing is good as always, even if every short piece has a very predictable ending. However, I think the book sells itself as a collection of cultural observances when it is really several attempts at humor, and a lot of it seemed very contrived as I was reading it. Generally, the peices that reflect Bryson's well-known research into, for example, American holidays, are the best. However, Bryson's stories about himself often seem to be canards. Mother Tongue and A Walk in the Woods are much better reads.

Very amusing! Picture Dave Barry crossed with Douglas Adams

I gave in to a friend suggesting I read Bryson's work, and I'm glad I did, as I got more good chuckles and laugh-out-loud moments out of this book than in anything I've read in many months.

It's probably inevitable that Bryson would be compared to other modern humorists. The comparison to Dave Barry is apt largely because they both write brief essays on specific topics, and both tend to end their essays with sudden and silly references to something the touched on earlier in the essay. Though the comparison really ends there, since Barry seems more taken with bathroom humor and taking a ridiculous idea to its absurd extreme than is Bryson.

Bryson seems more inclined to touch on issues that seem to have gone to a ridiculous extreme on their own, and that combined with his use of wordplay seem reminscent of Douglas Adams (Adams' bit in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy about the notice that Arthur Dent's house is going to be bulldozed being locked safely somewhere that Dent couldn't possibly find it could easily have been written by Bryson). His essay "What's Cooking", about the ridiculousness of ordering at a fancy restaurant, had me rolling on my side, and I've read parts of it to several friends. "Mail Call", an ode to the US Postal Service (and Britain's Royal Mail) is equally funny, and has real heart behind it.

The charm of Bryson's writing here is the perspective of an American having been Anglicized and then returning to the US after 20 years. The contrast in cultures, portrayed by someone who's experienced both of them, is endearing, and Bryson makes it clear that when you move you're always giving something up, but getting something new and wonderful in exchange. It's almost enough to make me move to Britain to have the same experience myself.

Alas, the essays - originally written for weekly publication in Britain - become less insightful as time passes, and as Bryson acclimates to his new life in America. He focuses more and more on general ridiculousness in life, and less on the contrast between America and Britain, which is where the book's soul lies. So, for instance, essays about the difficulty of using a Windows-based computer, or about the film Titanic, fall flat. And the essay on the US income tax forms seems entirely generic (what, for instance, are the British forms like, I wonder?).

Despite this, fans of lively humor essayists should certainly give this a try. Another good comparison might be with Richard Feynman's autobiographical Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman; both books are funny, uplifting, and make you feel good just to be alive. It's heartwarming to know that there are people like Bryson in the world.