| Product: |
Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson |
| Date: |
23/06/02 (204 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Extremely funny and useful guide to Europe, Proof that Americans can be ironic
Disadvantages: Eating too many biscuits while reading him
'Neither Here Nor There' is an account of the travels through Europe of a middle-aged Anglophile American retracing his 1972 'young American in Europe' tour. Before you switch off thinking 'this is definitely not for me', Bill Bryson is also the funniest and most honest travel writer around – he really does make you laugh out loud. He's not afraid to comment on the various nationalities he encounters and he's not the most PC of writers. But hey, I'm sure we can all agree that the Austrians are a bit weird (they did have Kurt Waldheim as president), and an American who decides England is the country for him has got to be ok, surely? This is one of the most appealing aspects of the book, he's not afraid to say something about the places he visited but also something about the people, their quirks and general weirdness.
Stockholm, Naples and Austrians are not especially high on his list of favourite European things but generally he seems to be quite fair about the people and places. He clearly loves Italy and devotes 4 chapters of praise to it with the exception of the Italian police and the gypsy kid who nicked his travellers' cheques in Florence. Whilst the book is a very useful guide to the various cities and towns he visits and their places of interest, what Bryson does best is evoke a sense of these places and their people. His descriptions – from the officiousness of the Swedes to the beauty of Capri – give you a real feel for these places.
My favourite chapter was 'Hammerfest', apart from sounding like an excellent cheesy heavy metal fest it is also one of the best places to see the Northern Lights. Seeing the Northern Lights is at the top of my list of ambitions and while Bryson beat me to it, I'm very grateful for his account of traveling to Hammerfest, the place itself and of course, the Northern Lights. I'm now trying to persuade my partner that a 30-ho
ur bus drive from Oslo and a month's stay in Hammerfest at a time when it is constantly dark would make for an ideal holiday but if I have to go by myself like Bill then so be it!
Bryson starts his travels in Hammerfest and then works his way down and around Europe ending up in Istanbul. The chapters of the book follow his journey. Initially I was only intending to dip into the book and read the chapters on 'Hammerfest' and the many chapters on Italy but then I was sucked into Bryson's world and ended up reading the whole thing in one go but you could just read the chapters of the places you're interested in, and for this reason I'll give the chapters below (I got the book on the basis of the places he covers so I thought it might be useful to know what's in there!)
1. To the North
2. Hammerfest
3. Oslo
4. Paris
5. Brussels
6. Belgium
7. Aachen and Cologne
8. Amsterdam
9. Hamburg
10. Copenhagen
11. Gothenburg
12. Stockholm
13. Rome
14. Naples, Sorrento and Capri
15. Florence
16. Milan and Como
17. Switzerland
18. Liechtenstein
19. Austria
20. Yugoslavia
21. Sofia
22. Istanbul
His style is easy-going but the pace is fast and keeps you turning the pages. Best of all though is his humour, he is very dry and quite often self-deprecating. His love of Europe though is clear and his enthusiasm for traveling and for Europe is charming and infectious (got my own travels in Europe in a few weeks, yay!)
He gives a great read for a Sunday afternoon. So I'm off now to get on the sofa with a lovely cup of tea, a packet of chocolate digestive caramels and a copy of his accounts of the British in 'Notes from a Small Island'. Enjoy your Sunday afternoon!
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