Product Description

After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens--as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me").  They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item.

Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I'm a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth.  The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended if at times bemused love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4130 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-06
• Released on: 2000-06-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.com
In the world of contemporary travel writing, Bill Bryson, the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods, often emerges as a major contender for King of Crankiness. Granted, he complains well and humorously, but between every line of his travel books you can almost hear the tinny echo: "I wanna go home, I miss my wife."

Happily, I'm a Stranger Here Myself unleashes a new Bryson, more contemplative and less likely to toss daggers. After two decades in England, he's relocated to Hanover, New Hampshire. In this collection (drawn from dispatches for London's Night & Day magazine), he's writing from home, in close proximity to wife and family. We find a happy marriage between humor and reflection as he assesses life both in New England and in the contemporary United States. With the telescopic perspective of one who's stepped out of the American mainstream and come back after 20 years, Bryson aptly holds the mirror up to U.S. culture, capturing its absurdities--such as hotlines for dental floss, the cult of the lawsuit, and strange American injuries such as those sustained from pillows and beds. "In the time it takes you to read this," he writes, "four of my fellow citizens will somehow manage to be wounded by their bedding."

The book also reflects the sweet side of small-town USA, with columns about post-office parties, dining at diners, and Thanksgiving--when the only goal is to "get your stomach into the approximate shape of a beach ball" and be grateful. And grateful we are that the previously peripatetic Bryson has returned to the U.S., turning his eye to this land--while living at home and near his wife. Under her benevolent influence, he entertains through thoughtful insights, not sarcastic stabs. --Melissa Rossi

From Publishers Weekly
Ex-expatriate Bryson, who chronicled one effort at American reentry in his bestselling A Walk in the Woods, collects another: the whimsical columns on America he wrote weekly, while living in New Hampshire in the mid-to-late 1990s, for a British Sunday newspaper. Although he happily describes himself as dazzled by American ease, friendliness and abundance, Bryson has no trouble finding comic targets, among them fast food, computer efficiency and, ironically, American friendliness and putative convenience. As he edges into Dave Barry-style hyperbole, Bryson sometimes strains for yuks, but he's deft when he compares the two cultures, as in their different treatment of Christmas, pointing out how the British "pack all their festive excesses" into that single holiday. Bryson also nudges into domestic territory with regular references to his own British wife, the resolutely sensible Mrs. B. In a few columns, Bryson adopts a sentimental tone, writing about his family and his new hometown of Hanover. In others, he's more sober, criticizing anti-immigration activists, environmental depredation and drug laws (though he draws out the humor in these as well). Not all the columns hit their mark, and they are best read in small groupings, but this collection should sell well enough, although not likely to the heights of A Walk in the Woods. Agent, Jed Mattes. Author tour; BDD audio.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Getting reacquainted with America.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Very Enjoyable with Only a Few Hiccups
Mr. Bryson's half-hearted curmudgeonly approach to life makes for another enjoyable read by this author. He covers a wide array of society's peculiar habits with a mixture of surliness and confusion. The only editorials that were creative but somewhat ponderous were his columns dealing with his computer. With the exception of just those few pieces, I enjoyed his book. Mr. Bryson is a funny, insightful writer who is a great remedy for a case of the blues.

funny...and insightful
nothing like looking at the US from the eyes of a stranger. What a beautiful perspective. There were many times I was laughing out loud when I read this book. Also a great gift for those who are travelers. you will not be disappointed.

A FUN READ, A GOOD READ.
After quite a number of years living and writing in England, Bill Bryson returned to his native land, the United States, with his family and apparently continued his writing career. Mr. Bryson wrote a series of weekly articles, a column, for a British newspaper, recording his experiences, thoughts and observations on his native land and his return after a long absence. This book, I'm A Stranger Here Myself is a collection of these articles which were printed in that British paper.

I like Bryson. I enjoy reading his books. This one was no exception. I suppose the first thing I like about this author, is that we both have the same attitude toward life. We are both rather inept in many ways. We neither of us seem to take ourselves very seriously. I can relate to that. One of the big differences between is though, is that he has the ability to articulate his thoughts, attitude and experiences, in a way I never will be able to. They guy can write and he can write well.

When I first picked up this book, I did with a bit of a sense of dread. I did not want another "lets get together and bash American" book. I need not have worried. Yes, he does point out some funny, amusing, odd and silly things about our culture, but he is just a quick to point out that these different little oddities can be found around the world, only in different forms and customs. Let's face it, there is a lot a bout this country that is absolutely great, in fact, most things are. The author is quick point this out. On the other hand, there is much about our culture, our people, our government and our lives in general that is, if viewed from a certain angle, absolute hilarious. Bryson is quick to point this out too.

Everything is free game in this little work. Everything from the postal service, cars, diet, computers, holidays, work, play, language, government, family relationships, and so much more, are free game to his pen. Through all of his work though, he is constantly laughing at himself more than anyone else. Most of the articles are funny, many of them absolutely hilarious, and some of them are quite serious, simply due the subject matter. Each article the author has written (he even rather humorously refers to making money on his recycled work), makes up one chapter in this book. It is well written, easy to read, and, if you are like me, addresses subjects we all feel the same about, but just cannot say them in the way Bryson can.

Enjoyed this one and it was a well written, relaxing read.