Bryson Hits Europe (Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson)

Member Name: Puggers

Product:	Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson
Date:	22/05/05 (474 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Witty, endearing humour, Conveys a sense of European culture quite nicely, Fast-moving

Disadvantages: Spends too little time in each country, His critiques can come across as occasionally whiny

In 1972, a young Bill Bryson came to Europe, and spent an enjoyable four months traipsing hither and thither across the continent, becoming thoroughly smitten with the countries he encountered. Such was his enjoyment, he came back the following summer accompanied by his high-school friend Stephen Katz (later to be seen in A Walk in the Woods), which he acknowledges was 'a serious mistake'. However, he managed to shut his mind to Katz's more tedious idiosyncracies, and had himself a jolly enough time nonetheless.

Nearly twenty years later, he came back for a third visit; although he had been living in Europe for the majority of his adult life, he had rarely ventured outside British shores. Determined to put this right, he set out to roughly follow the trail he and Katz had taken, drifting southwards from Hammerfest in the Norwegian far north to the opposite tip of Europe, Istanbul.

Bryson being Bryson, Neither Here Nor There immediately paints a grin on the reader's face, one which seldom slips, such is the fluid, relaxed style with which the author writes, dropping in amusing asides and entertaining anecdotes here and there. One of the most enduring aspects of his stories tends to be his unique ability to find himself lost and bemused in almost any situation - and if he can manage this in his own country, there should be plenty of oppurtunity for it crossing a continent of different languages and cultures.

Having seen the Northern Lights, albeit only for a moment, in Hammerfest, Bryson travels south before briefly returning home to take in Christmas with his family. Perhaps a shame, this, given the excellence of the opening few chapters. However, he is soon back on the road, and lets Europe's railways take him from Paris into Belgium, Germany and Scandanavia before a descent into Italy. After a jump back up to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, it's swiftly south to take in the former Yugoslavia before journey's end in Turkey. Alongside the accounts of his travels as they happen, he also drifts back in time to his earlier trip, bringing up anecdotes of things done the first time around alongside his current journey.

With such variety encountered, it was always going to be a task to do full justice to the places visited, although Bryson's ability to characterise people and places suits this well. Although he isn't able to see more than a tiny amount of each country, he possesses a talent for moving his depiction of cultures from a micro to macro level effortlessly and seamlessly. From talking about a particular person in a particular bar, he can pan out and give a succinct, evocative impression of a whole people's quirks and endearing habits.

"[Dutch] sounds like nothing so much as a particular version of English.
Katz and I often noticed this. We would be walking down the street when a stranger would step from the shadows and say, 'Hello, sailors, care to grease my flanks?' or something, and all he would want was a light for his cigarette. It was disconcerting."

Unfortunately, even a writer with such talents is restricted by only spending a few days in a city (often only a few days in a whole country), and as such, can only write so much about the place. Many of the chapters follow a familiar pattern - Bryson arrives in city after a troublesome journey, relates how he found somewhere to stay, finds a bar, sleeps, visits museums, sleeps, leaves. And so on. Although he breaks this up with his unfailingly funny humour, it can become a little repetitive in tone. The exception to this is in Hammerfest, where Bryson paints a delightful picture of this secluded community, doubtless a result of spending a couple of weeks, rather than days, in the North.

As such, this is not a travel guide of any sort. Of course, it's not actually meant to be, but some of his other books - A Walk in the Woods, The Lost Continent, Notes from a Small Island, will tell you a lot more about the places dealt with than this effort will. However, Bryson does manage to convey the atmosphere and the feelings of the whole trip; although you won't learn a lot about the places, you will almost certainly feel inspired to go and find out for yourself.

As ever, Bryson is not to everyone's tastes. His sense of humour is one that succeeds on a fine edge - where it fails to hit the mark exactly, it can come across as whiny and ignorant. In some people's eyes, this occurs more often than not. For me, though, his tone is a wry one, which applies a slightly different slant on things to that normally encountered. And due to this, I think anyone with a passion for Europe (or a desire to develop one) will find this book thoroughly enjoyable.

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