Bill Bryson

In a sunburned country

A joyous look into the oft forgot Australia as Bryson travels around the continent and sees almost none of it. He is an excellent travel companion and relays the stories of his Australian meanderings as if you were there with him.

Emily Morris

Colleen

Bill Bryson seems to dominate the travel book section. Yet despite my love of armchair travel, I've never actually read any of his work. So as the dreary grey/brown setting of a Midwest winter became increasingly depressing, I flocked to the travel books to try my darndest to vicariously absorb Vitamin D through their pages. Since reading In a Sunburned Country seemed to combine both my desire to be swept far away and finally reading something by this author, it jumped up to the top of my list. So away we went. Sort of...

What I'd heard the most about Bill Bryson was that his books were funny. So I started this book expecting something along the lines of Peter Allison or J. Maarten Troost. But I what I found was completely different. The thing that no one mentioned (including the cover description) was that this book was less about travel or cultural immersion than it was about stringing together interesting historical facts. Now this is where I have to sound a tad hypocritical. I have often complained about how dumbed down contemporary writing is. The best seller list is teeming with people who most likely have never done any contextual research or fact checking. I really should have been over the moon to find a book stuffed full of random facts and interesting historical vignettes. But In a Sunburned Country was completely different from what I was expecting. If I had known going in that this book focused on background information rather than travel experience, then I might not have been disappointed. But my primary reason for reading this book was to vicariously go on walkabout. And I really did not get that experience.

Part of my less than enthusiastic response is because I now judge all travel memoirs by the standard of Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide. I read it last year and it immediately became my new favorite. It has the perfect blend of humor, cultural experience, and heartfelt moments. The way Bill Bryson was described, I was expecting something on par. But I was nowhere near as immersed by In a Sunburned Country.

To be fair, Bryson did an amazing amount of research. He pulls obscure facts and events from the dusty archives of history and strings them together in a captivating way. Indeed, research (rather than the actual traveling) seems to be his true passion. His narrative always perked up when he was in some museum or library. That seemed to be where he was most comfortable. There were times when he did not seem particularly enthusiastic to be traveling. Indeed, in the third section, he got so crotchety that it was hard to read. 

The majority of his research was clearly done before and after the trip. Truthfully, his travels felt like they were only there to string together the interesting historical facts which is the primary reason this book fails as a travelogue. His game plan seemed to be: research a lot of historical facts about Australia, go to Australia, write down topics that you want to research further, go home and research them and put them in your book. The traveling seemed like a byproduct not the main event. So while his historical research and anthropological records were illuminating, there was an almost complete lack of real travel, adventure, cultural immersion, or description of what he experienced or saw. When boiled down, the majority of the book was, "I'm in Sydney; here's some interesting things that happened in Sydney. I'm in Brisbane drinking a beer; here are some random things that once occurred here. I'm in Perth having more beer; here is a synopsis of random conversation I had; oh and here are some more facts."

His writing was also supposed to be humorous. While he did have a dry sense of self-depreciating humor that I liked, I found the humor was mostly limited to a few chuckles. There was nothing laugh out loud funny. Since the majority of the book was about facts rather than experiences, you lose any chance at humor due to cross-cultural differences. While I liked his little quips, they seemed inefficient to qualify this as a humorous work. Having finished the book, I would say this funniest thing was his explanation of cricket which given Bryson's description of low physical activity and many snack breaks I would deduce was invented by Hobbits. But the rest of the humor was by and large forgettable. 

Both his humor and his writing style are obviously influenced by his years living in England. The dry tone, sense of snark, and certain words and phrases he used were notably British. This probably should have endeared to the writing more since I usually love British writing. But the disappointment of the experience being completely different from expectation limited my enjoyment.

His background is journalism is also evident. Perhaps that is why he focuses more on facts than experiences. But while the facts were noteworthy, it sometimes gave the pages a clinical feel. As I have mentioned, the personal narrative is mostly there to string the facts together. If I did not already have a good idea of what Australia looked like (due to many hours looking at pictures of faraway places) then I would not have gleamed that from this book. Extremely little time is spent describing the landscape to any satisfactory extent. Nothing makes the pages come alive. The only memorable description was of Uluru. Everything else was limited and lacked vivid detail. 

I still feel a little bad giving this book 3 Stars. But I gave it more than Wild and this book is far, far better written than that narcissistic jumble. But with my disappointment, I just don't feel up to giving it 4 Stars. Now that I know what to expect from Bryson's writing, I am sure that I will read more of his work in the future. But it will definitely be when I am in the mood to learn random facts, NOT when I wish to travel and truly experience culture.

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars
Entertainment Level: 3 Stars
Attention to Details: 4 Stars

In a Sunburned Country

Daniel Hewitt

Fascinating and funny. I have never laughed so much while reading a book and spent so much time on Wikipedia trying to learn more about what a unique and strange place Australia is.

Down Under

Amanda Wells

Well that was certainly a fun read, and an interesting view of my country from an outsider's perspective. 

I slowly read this book over the past couple of months, as it got pushed down the priorities as the Man Booker list came out. But I thoroughly enjoyed Bryson's anecdotes and observations about this country. He was hilariously biting on Canberra and Darwin, and I was nervous about his assessment of Adelaide. Turns out I needn't have worried - he had the same assessment most have: it's nice, but not much going on. That's fine, and things have changed since the book came out, but that's pretty much what people think!

I did love the assessment of Queensland in general as containing a lot of crazy types. This is true. I just moved out of Queensland after living there for 7 years, and while it is slowly coming along (especially in Brisbane) in terms of arts investment, diversity, infrastructure and all that, it is the most conservative state as a whole - and by conservative I mean bat-shit crazy. 

Although the book is a little out of date now, it was still an entertaining read, and contains sadly spot on points about the general population's treatment of Aboriginal Australians. Bryson's description of the typical country Australian character is pretty good too, and his adventures in this vast country made me want to go back to the country again and see the big skies, the vast landscapes, the empty roads. (Lucky I've booked a trip back home next month then!)

In a sunburned country

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