I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away
Ratings35
Average rating3.6
15
Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away
Ratings35
Average rating3.6
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.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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This is a book of articles Bryson wrote for a British newspaper after he returned back to the US after 20 years of living (and starting a family) in the English countryside. It's an interesting point of view of mid-90s American life - both an American's and a Brit's because, while he was born and raised in Iowa, being away for most of his adult life only to return is still a bit of a culture shock.Bill Bryson has a great sense of humour that had me laughing out loud nearly every article (and the graduation speech towards the end made me snivel). This is just a fun read but was interesting to me being an American interested in British culture and the differences therein. I also enjoyed his [b:Notes from a Small Island 28 Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411111661s/28.jpg 940892] for the same reason. The book was also a nostalgic look-back at how America was while I was growing up, having been born in the mid-80s.
At first each entry was fun and funny to me, and as it went along (that is to say, the longer he was back in the USA) they were less funny and more complaining. This book was my breakfast read, which meant I only read one or two entries a day and ended up having to renew the book twice. Then I stopped reading it in the mornings because it was no longer starting my day with a smile, and when it came time to renew it again I just didn't bother.
