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Notes from a Big Country | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Bantam Books-Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $18.70
Buy New: $9.67
You Save: $9.03 (48%)
Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 814424
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 3.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 055214648X
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780552146487
ASIN: 055214648X
Publication Date: November 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
An audio cassette featuring some of Bill Bryson's "Mail on Sunday" columns about that strange phenomena, the American way of life, in which he brings his bemused wit to bear on one of the world's craziest countries.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 live long and prosper, Mr. Bryson December 28, 2008
Margaret Magnus (Francestown, NH USA)
Weather.com reports the temperature here in the Rockies to be 5 degrees (F) with winds gusting up to 50 mph. As it happens, the cabin we rented had a copy of Bryson about whom I'd heard so many fine things from so many fine people. He did keep me chuckling for several hours in a row and that mostly kept out the cold, for which I am genuinely grateful. He has as fine and nuanced a wit as any of those Brits, for whose funniness I also share a great admiration. I understand that a fellow like him might feel at home there.
But c'mon, guys. He was to a degree pandering to the European. He should have just stated point blank, "See I'm not as cheap and dense and ignoble and crass and as these fellow Americans. Approve of me. And above all, send me your money." Perhaps, you're more one of us simple-minded, hypocritical, money-grubbing Americans than you let on, Mr. Bryson? Why was it you moved here to the US? Money and convenience, wasn't that it?
I would forgive it completely if one of the following conditions held. 1) The Europeans weren't so dead serious about their America-hate (i.e. I believed the Brit of the 1990s actually had the nobility and nuance not to swallow these words so gleefully and indiscriminately, if they didn't spend quite so many prime time hours on their deeply profoundly fair comparisons of Bush and Stalin), 2) Mr. Bryson had had the guts to keep the same title in both countries, 3) I'd read at least one of his other books so that his vituperations were balanced out a bit for me, 4) he had earned less money and approval rather than more as a consequence of slanting it as he did, 5) I sensed that he had a real appreciation for what lies at the root of the psychology on either continent.
But he does admit that this was a work in haste. He gets 5 stars for the grace with which he pulls his punches, which, I admit, are not wholly undeserved.
Disappointed January 19, 2008
Honorary Brit (Oneida, NY United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I recently finished Notes from a Small Island (which I thoroughly enjoyed), and was eager to dig into what I expected to be kind of an equivalent synopsis of life in America. I am very disappointed because it seems that Bryson spends most of the time pandering to the Brits who can never seem to find anything good to say about America. If things are really so dire over here, then why do they come in droves and never leave again? I was relieved when I finally reached a chapter in which Bryson's British wife points out that all he does is complain, and he finally got around to mentioning the friendliness of the American people.
I lived in England myself, and it's funny that some of the same things he seemingly resents about America are the same things that I couldn't wait to return to. In his prior book he speaks endearingly about the many quirky aspects of life in Britain but seems not be nearly as receptive to America's quirks. Just when will America be entitled to its own culture and way of life without having to apologize to its stodgy European predecessors?
There is an unspoken rule in English culture that one never (directly) brags about one's own family, or indeed anything. I suppose Notes from a Big Country is a good indication of just how 'English' Bryson became while he was there. By no means should he brag about America, particularly to his British audience, but the book could have been so much more positive.
 Bill Bryson is a Left Wing Fruitloop and Probably a Terrorist October 27, 2007
T. Parfitt (Taipei, Taiwan)
How dare the curmudgeonly Mr. Byrson poke fun at the absurdities of American culture and society? You'd think that he'd been living in some odd little island-nation (like England, say) for the past two decades from the way he disparages the so-called dumbing down of America (we prefer "gravitating toward quiet imbecility," Mr. Bryson) and our beloved enthusiasm for formal procedure (for your information, red tape keeps our homeland stuck together). And when the author comments on our casual disregard for the environment and the American proclivity for predictability, he does so as though these are somehow bad things. And then, of course, Mr. Bryson attempts to cover up his unpatriotic tracks with anecdotes of how nice everyday Americans really are (like when new neighbors welcomed his family with freshly baked pies), but by then his agenda has already been exposed; the treasonous damage is done. What perturbs me most about Bill Bryson is his opinions and the fact that he seems to be filled up with them. Oh, and his humor. Someone needs to inform this man that humor is not always funny. Well, sir, you may have had the first laugh, but since the time you wrote this spiteful little tome, America has put itself on a new and correct political track and is determined to right all of the wrongs. And so I ask you, Mr. Bryson: who is laughing now?
PS: I am currently reading your book on Shakespeare. It's quite good.
Troy Parfitt, author
Triple Dipping March 2, 2007
Jerry Clyde Phillips (Sutton, Vermont)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In spite of all the xenophobic rants from our "love it or leave it" reviewers, Bryson is not out to bring down the good ole U.S. of A., but only to give to British readers glimpses of America that they don't normally see on reruns of "Law and Order", "The O.C.", or the myriad other American TV imports that are slowly taking over British television. If some of his subjects might upset some of these readers, they need to get over it. The columns, and the book in which the columns were compiled, were NOT meant for them in the first place. The columns that make up this book were written between October 1996 and May 1998 and published in the Mail on Sunday's Night and Day magazine for a primarily British audience. The selling point for this run of articles was that Bryson would be returning to the States after some twenty years in Britain and that the America he would be describing would be seen by the eyes of an American, but an American that had absorbed enough of Britannia to become something of a hybrid. The resulting columns would naturally be informative, witty, and penetrating.
Unfortunately, this goal was only partially successful. Bryson can be a very insightful observer, and his writing style is infectious enough, but now and then it seems that he is neither interested in the subject of which he writes nor is he able to bring the full talent of his art to the task. Both of these weaknesses are apparent in this collection of articles. The subject of his notes run the gamut from the obesity and ignorance of a goodly portion of the American population to the wonders and brilliance of the American landscape. And since these writings were intended for "light" reading there is an attempt to make them humorous. Bryson can be VERY funny when he is not TRYING to be funny; alas, most of the humor in this book is of the contrived type: Bryson acting the dunce for a few cheap laughs. Equally annoying is his way of ending each of his notes, where the reader is to believe that Bryson is bringing his weekly musings to a close because of some outside event like eating dinner, decorating the Christmas tree, or playing catch with his kids, rather than the fact that his word quota has been met.
And since I'm being finicky here, it must be mentioned that ole Bill is triple dipping. First, he writes these 70 odd notes for a weekly periodical; he then incorportes them into this book; and then he incorporates THIS book (minus those Briticisms and British spellings so anathema to the "love it or leave it" crowd) into another book, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, which is intended for an American audience. Not a bad return for some random musings originally intended for British readers passing a lazy weekend.
British humour the American way February 26, 2006
J. Klerks (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
One explanation of the conception of 'British humour' is that by laughing about it was the only way for the Brits to cope with the misfortune of loosing an empire. It this 'just wonder and laugh about it' attitude which Bryson applies to all kind of Americanisms and every day wonders and (mis)fortunes. And who better then a funny bloke like Bill Bryson to reflect on these in a combined 78 news paper columns as an American who lived in the UK for over twenty years who masters the art or exaggeration. This is the ideal book to pick up every now and then, read a few notes and move on with a smile on your face.
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