Bryson, Bill. In a Sunburned Country. New York: Broadway Books 2000. Print.
Flying into Australia, I realized with a sigh that I had forgotten again who their prime minister is....But then Australia is such a difficult country to keep track of.
Description:
I admit that there are only a few authors that really make me laugh: P.G. Wodehouse, A.J. Jacobs, Quentin Crisp, Jim Gaffigan, Tony Hawks, Mark Twain, Donald Westlake, and Farley Mowat are at the top. While we all have our favorites, probably the humorist everyone looks forward to reading is Bill Bryson. I recently found my copy of his wonderful memories about traveling to Australia, In a Sunburned Country, and, in checking out pages marked by my little paper scraps for favorite scenes and text, found the book every bit as out-loud laughable as I had remembered.
Bryson is at his best, in my opinion, when he writes about his travels. In his skilled hands, all the Australia's oddities and challenges he might face (or actually does encounter) become funny. His research into the history, cities, and people is insightful and always shared in his "everyman explorer" style of dry humor. His stream of consciousness writing make readers feel like invisible companions privy to his wandering thoughts and muttered observations of everything around him.
...my guidebook blandly observed that "only" fourteen species of Australian snakes are seriously lethal, among them the western brown, desert death adder, tiger snake, taipan, and yellow-bellied sea snake. The taipan is the one to watch out for. It is the most poisonous snake on earth, with a lunge so swift and a venom so potent that your last mortal utterance is likely to be: "I say, it that a sn---."The Australian history he uncovers is fascinating, obscure, and always quirky. Take his description of the founding of the capital, Canberra:
The young nation had a site for a capital and a name for a capital, and it had taken them just eleven years since union [1901] to get there. At this blistering pace, all being well, they might get a city going within half a century or so. In fact, it would take rather longer.
The people of Australia and some of their notable traits don't escape his observation:
I had read in the paper that Australians are the biggest gamblers on the planet....[T]he country has less than 1 percent of the world's population but more than 20 percent of its slot machines ["pokies"]....We put in a two-dollar coin, just to see what would happen, and got an instant payout of seventeen dollars. This made us immensely joyful.
His descriptions of the rules and play for cricket matches are worth picking up this book. For him, cricket play:
...goes on for so long that by the time the match concludes autumn has crept in and all your library books are overdue....Listening to cricket on the radio is like listening to two men sitting in a rowboat on a large placid lake on a day when the fish aren't biting.
There is so much more in this delightful, informative travel memoir. In a Sunburned Country is one of my go-to books when I need a lift, a laugh, and a wallowing in great writing about a fascinating topic. I never get tired of this book and even after many readings still find things to laugh at or just be astonished by on every page. And I do mean every page. What other book can you say that about?
____________________
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods.
Bryson decides to reconnect with his country by walking the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail. He travels with his friend, Stephen Katz, a woefully out-of-shape non-hiker who eats much of their supplies on the very first day, What could possibly go wrong in the days ahead?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add a comment or book recommendation.