My grandfather loves Bill Bryson’s writing. He raves about the split-a-gut style Bryson uses in his non-fiction works. He reads parts at family gatherings to everyone from different books he’s reading by him.



It took me about a year before I sat down and read some of Bryson’s material. In A Sunburned Country is absolutely fantastic. Bryson forms his journey through the lost continent of Australia through laughter and history, somehow holding on to the reader’s interest even when you’re reading about Englishmen getting shipwrecked on parts of Australian coast. It captivated me enough that I didn't count to see how many pages were left before I was finished. All the sudden I realised there were only two left, and a feeling of dismay settled over me: I was almost done following Bryson on his journey.



Bryson, while poking fun at Australia, seems also to genuinely love the place. For him, it seems almost like a journey to better understand the place, and he succeeds in falling in love with the friendly people, and the dangerous environment.



Read it. If you’re going to Australia, read it. If you’re interested in Australia, read it. It’s a great book.

Bryson’s astonishing ability to make the reader laugh, and laugh hard. I liked his descriptions and his amazing stories about box jellyfish, and crocodiles. He travels to many should-be-world-famous sites that he describes well.



He also describes the city of Canberra as very boring, and his portrayal of how people act and what people think about when they’re board was so well done, that I laughed through the whole section at such parts as:

I walked for hours through green, pleasantly, endlessly identical neighbourhoods, never entirely confident that I wasn’t just going around in large circles. From time to time I would come to a leafy rotary with spoked roads radiating off in various directions, each presenting an identical vista of antipodeans suburban heaven, and I would venture down to one that looked most likely to take me to civilization only to emerge ten minutes later at another identical rotary. I never saw another soul on foot or anyone watering a lawn or anything like that. Very occasionally a car would glide past, pausing at each intersection, the driver looking around with a despairing expression that said, “Now, where the fuck is my house?”



And having nothing better to do in Canberra, Bryson sat at his hotel and drank:



I think the last beer might have been a mistake because I don’t remember much after that other than a sensation of supreme goodwill toward anyone who passed through the room, including a Filipina who came in with a vacuum cleaner and asked me to lift my feet so that she could clean under my chair. My notes for the evening show only two other entries, both in a slightly unsteady hand. One says, “Victoria Bitter—why called??? Not bitter at all. But quite nice!!!” The other said, “I tell you, Barry, he was farting sparks!” I believe this was in reference to a colourful Aussie turn of phrase I overheard from the people at the next table rather than to any actual manifestation of flatulence of an electric nature.

         But I could be wrong. I’d had a few.

There were a few instances where I felt a little bored at Bryson’s delving into the history of Australia. Although interesting, it seemed to drag on sometimes and I was more interested in Bryson’s journeys rather than the history

Read Bill Bryson’s guide to Europe, Neither Here nor There, and also read his book on English that deals with tricky words and usage.

Interested and intrigued with Australian culture and the continent itself. It made me want to pack my bags and take off for Down Under. It taught me a lot about a place that is relatively unnoticed by the rest of the world.

Is wonderful. Truely a genius. He seems also to have an in depth understanding of the English language, and he's easy to understand.

It’s funny, informative, and very entertaining. If you’re planning on reading non-fiction, Bryson is the place to start.

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Created Jul 09, 2003 at 10:29am • Submit your own review...