Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe | Bill Bryson | The perenially likeable Bryson does it...

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe | Bill Bryson | Comic Genius

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Neither Here nor T...

	Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe Bill Bryson Harper Perennial, 1999 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 163 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The perenially likeable Bryson does it again

An account of the author's rambles across Europe. Bryson is always entertaining, and his writing alternates from downright hilarious to the point of absurdity to dealing with some very sobering statistics. This is a wonderful mix and he's a very gifted writer whose works sound like a really great story you once heard from a friend.

Comic Genius

This was my first Bill Bryson book and I can still remember riding the subway to work and errupting in fits of frenzied laughter as dour faced clerks and bankers peered disapprovingly at me over their morning newspapers. If you happened to be one of those people, I apologize. I couldn't help myself.

With NEITHER HERE NOR THERE you are not going to get a comprehensive travel guide to Europe filled with effusive descriptions or ponderous sentences like, 'Politically, as well as socially, Sweden is now at a crossroads.' Rather, what you will get is an irreverant account of comedian-philosopher Bill Bryson country hopping about the world's most refined continent with no real purpose, point, or plan. And yet it works. From encounters to non-English speaking Swedes to a flashback of a run in with some beer swilling Austrians, this small volume makes for some great escapism. And between the jokes, there's some fine writing. The writer's description of his experience in Norway, for example, was very good. Please note that this book wasn't meant to be taken so seriously. Its title should tell you that.

Troy Parfitt, author

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A gem for travelers, or travel-wannabes

It helps to already be a Bryson fan, but if you are new to the joys of reading his books, settle in, and enjoy. Bryson has been an outsider himself, having lived in England for many years. He moved back to the USA after two decades, tried it for a while, and moved back to England. He knows about being a stranger in a strange land. When he makes observation on the eccentricities, endearing qualities, advantages, and frustrating foibles of the places he visits (including those in the USA), he does it with humor, intelligence, a satirical bent, a very precise eye,insight--and did I say, humor? You will laugh out loud at least once. The paperback is inexpensive, the enjoyment immense.

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Very funny, but missing the "fun"

Bill Bryson's humor is, as always, top-flight. One reviewer mentioned a series of jokes that he found "tiring" ... personally I found the caricatures very funny. Of course Bryson's comments are generalizations, many of them over-generalizations for humor's sake, many of them are grossly inaccurate I am sure. But the reality is that we *all* generalize, and while I understand the European point of view, I would ask the critics of this book who cry xenophobia to think about all of the over-generalizations Europeans have of America and Americans. But hey, we're all entitled to our own opinion, and humor perhaps more than anything is something that is lost in translation. I don't think the European audience is the one Bryson is targeting anyway, and I'm sure there exist many books in Europe that lampoon America to a degree that most Americans would similarly take offense at. C'est la vie.

While the humor itself rates 5 stars, the "travel" part is 3~4 stars at best. I do agree with the critics that note Bryson's somewhat formulaic style becomes a little weary after a while, and aside from the funny stories and interludes, Bryson's travels are actually on the dull side. In many ways, it felt like a sequel that was a watered down version of the original--I wondered if Bryson wouldn't have been better off writing about just his *original* youthful travels around Europe with Katz instead of this version we had--Europe: Part Deux. Bryson himself seemed to lose interest in his own travels around Italy, and often it felt like he was more interested to leave the last town than to enter the next one. By Istanbul, Bryson was clearly just going through the motions. Bryson's general lack of attachment to these places keeps the reader at arm's length as well.

In the end, I think the reader's opinion of this book will depend on how the humor is received. If you don't find it funny, this book will be a miserable read. For me, and I believe most people, the humor is hilarious enough and the flashbacks are interesting enough to carry the reader's interest from beginning to end. Still, I agree with those who say it does not match the level of Bryson's other works. The style remains but this book is missing a bit of the soul that makes Bryson's works such interesting and entertaining reads.

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Great way to travel- just read about it

This is my third Bryson book, and so far so good. The AT book was a bit better, and the Short History was a bit broader, but so far they all follow a simple but successful format. Bryson goes somewhere, observes and then writes about it. The writing is not usually laugh out loud funny, but it has enough funny moments and humorous observations that when these are combined with the interesting facts tossed out by Bryson that you end up feeling that you got your money's worth.

Neither Here nor There starts with his second (major) trip to mainland Europe (he lived in semi-Europe, that is, England, for seventeen years) and he starts with an epic bus trip to view the northern lights in the Nome of Norway. At least I think it was Norway, it was some non-descript Scandinavian country. In any case he captures well the feeling of being on the edge of nowhere in a community so bland it makes your last Young Republican rally seem like the Watts riots. He alternates between being wryly bemused and clinically depressed, but weaves it all together when he finally does get to see the lights, in all their glory.

The wry bemusement versus clinical depression seems to be a common theme of the book, if not his life, and it helps you kind of root for him as he goes gallivanting like a trust fund baby through all of Europe. Italy, Germany, Yugoslavia, Belgium, even Liechtenstein- he doesn't miss much. I think Spain and Greece got bypassed somehow, but pretty much everywhere else he hit. Even a brief hangout time at pre-war Bosnia, a bit surreal.

I really don't find any great weakness in the book, other than there is no traveling partner of any kind to give dimension. Some of the better bits are his reminisces, if they can be called that, of his earlier trip with his friend Katz. Katz is a character, to say the least, with all the in-your-face-humanity of a Homer Simpson without the FCC to keep him in check. He should've tried to get old Katz out of by-gosh Iowa for one more trek of the Old Country. We do get to run into him again in the Appalachians in another Bryson book, but Europe would've benefited by him, too, in my opinion.

I've only ever been to Austria (which he slams a bit) and Switzerland which he also slams a bit, but from my limited experience his observations seemed to be at least in the ballpark. Switzerland is very expensive (sehr teuer) and Austria is full of Austrians and both are full of beautiful mountains. And if you don't like German it doesn't matter- everybody speaks English, most likely as well as you do.

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