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 enlarge | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $1.00
You Save: $13.95 (93%)
New (65) Used (137) Collectible (11) from $1.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  286 reviews
Sales Rank: 6339
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060920084
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.30492
EAN: 9780060920081
ASIN: 0060920084
Publication Date: September 12, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: used-remainder mark on page edges-pages 155-170 have corner torn off-cover and some pages are creased-back cover and last few pages have large slices from unpacking
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Book Written For Easy Money? June 18, 2007
There is plenty to satirize and poke fun at in America but make it clever,do it with incite, and do it with humor. After thoroughly enjoying 2 Bryson books, A Walk in The Woods, and, A Short History of Nearly Everything, this was very disappointing.
It started, laugh out loud funny but...by the 3rd chapter or so, I was thinking I was wasting my time. I felt by the end it was a book he wrote for easy money.
He drives from town to town, staying in cheap motels, watching TV in the evenings and makes virtually no attempt to engage the locals. He bemoans the changes and commercialization that has transformed many locations since his family visited in his childhood, any of us could make those observations. His attitude is condescending. He simply makes sarcastic remarks and draws conclusions about towns and people based on buying gas, renting a motel room or eating in a local restaraunt. Making fun of waitreses and people who were genuinely trying to help him is not my idea of a humorous, or inciteful look at America.
The fact that Bryson is an observant, humorous, mid-westerner who has lived abroad for 20+ years should have made for an A-1 read. Instead, I told my wife and sons, forget this one.
 Quite Unamusing and Unoriginal June 13, 2007
8 out of 16 found this review helpful
Mr. Bryson may appeal to certain types, but I find no humour in his trashing of small town life in America. Bryson finds great pleasure in seeking out the worst in every town he "visits," then writes disparagingly about the inhabitants, even mocking the various dialects he encounters. He paints a negative image of the places he visits, often perpetuating outdated stereotypes in order to make the place seem worse. Anyone who goes looking for the worst elements of a locale will likely find them. He then exaggerates those findings. Such great talent has he.
Mr. Bryson seems to have a rather high opinion of himself, but his writing reveals that he is actually full of himself (and full of something else). He lived in England for a number of years apparently curing him of his American upbringing. Now he has returned to report back to the rest of the world how bad his native country really is.
His boorish exaggerations, intentional disparaging remarks, frequent use of vulgar language, and lack of any genuine interest in his subject matter (other than to sell books) leads me to believe he is a less decent form of life than any of the people he so mercilessly belittles in his book. For all their perceived shortcomings, those people are authentic. Bryson is a phony, and I might add, a very unattractive bloke himself.
What a shame so many readers fall for his second-rate comedy.
Please move back to England Bryson, and don't return.
 Caution: Sense of Humor Required May 27, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Like the author, I grew up in Iowa. And that's primarily why I read this book. Bryson returns to the USA after working for years in Britain and takes a nostalgic roadtrip through small town America. Yes, some of his humor and observations are sarcastic, but that's part of the fun. The reader has to understand the need for us to laugh at our idiosyncracies and inconsitencies. It's apparent that some reviewers here took offense instead of smiling, and a writer always runs that risk when using satire as a comedic device. Some folks are too insecure or just plain dull to enjoy it. If you have a sense of humor and don't feel threatened by the occasional parody, then you'll enjoy this book. If you can only take everything literally, stick to the newspaper.
 Possibly Bryson's funniest book May 16, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
It would be a real stretch to say that Bill Bryson thoroughly researches everything he writes about, goes out of his way to learn about and see and document only the most interesting aspects of places, and presents his portraits of places fairly and with an effort to see every side of both places and issues.
A real stretch.
But, it wouldn't be a stretch at all to say that Bill Bryson is undeniably loaded with wit and humor. This book is, I believe, Bill Bryson's very funniest. I laughed so hard at his descriptions of eating in small town diners that I woke my wife up who was sleeping next to me, several times. I tried to read passages from it to my brother over the phone, but couldn't get certain words out because I was silenced by laughing, by the sort of full-body laughing usually only high schoolers drinking milk get to enjoy.
This book is not an objective or a thorough or a totally accurate picture of America; its passages about the West, places I'm especially familiar with, almost appalled me at the total lack of effort Bryson made to go out of his way to see anything other than major attractions like the Grand Canyon. Even there, he just stood on the edge and looked over. However, what this book is, is funny. Very funny. Dangerously funny, especially if you ever find yourself hiding in an Anne Frank-style bunker, living secretly in fear of the government, where laughing very loudly could end your life.
I highly recommend this book. Writers about American subjects will find quotable quotes on almost every region, and lovers of good comedy will find a very enjoyable read.
Plus, and I couldn't believe this, it's really well-indexed.
Petulant and smug travelogue May 9, 2007
8 out of 14 found this review helpful
I snatched this up after thoroughly enjoying "A Short History of Nearly Everything", but this book has forever put me off of anything else Mr. Bryson will ever write. It's relentlessly arrogant and petty, and overall just extremely tiresome. For someone who harps on and on about the lack of civility from those he encounters, he doesn't really seem capable of displaying any himself. Particularly in his encounters with waitresses he comes off as a first class jackass.
If you want a narrow-minded journal of a pathetic anglophile's tour of the US, by all means pick up the book. Personally I think there are better ways to spend one's time and money.
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