Bryson Finds Love at Last

For most Americans - and probably for most Europeans, too - Australia is a big, roughly circular blank spot on the map. For us, it's an easy-to-defend territory in Risk, and the source of many a bad Down Under joke - a country that's gone to another planet, but occasionally sends back bands and boomerangs.

Bill Bryson doesn't see Australia like that. Strange to say - *very* strange, if you've read his other travel books - Bryson actually seems to like, even love, Australia. He certainly relishes traveling through it and revels in the odd little facts he unearths. This makes for a touching travel book rather different than his previous works.

In a Sunburned Country is actually extremely different than, for example, A Walk in the Woods. The primary focus of Walk was the humor and the experiences, not the Applachian Trail, and certainly not America or Americans. In Sunburned, Bryson has produced a much more straightforward travelogue more concerned with little museums and cheap hotels than with the inside of his own head. It's still funny, of course, and it's still got a lot of Bryson in it - his reactions to the museums (he loved every one of 'em), his reactions to the hotels (if you're going to Darwin, better check out this book first), and his inexplicable ability to find danger and injury in places where other people are fine (the dogs in the park, petrol in the outback).

This is by no means an in-depth exploration of Australia; in fact, it could be subtitled "Australia: Only the Good Parts." Bryson just gives hints about the darker side of modern Australians (a man in a train who says that all Aborogines should be hanged), then hastily retreats to another museum. It's as though he's reluctant to let his fantasy of Perfect Australia be tainted.

However, it's engrossing both as armchair travel and as humor, and that, as we all know, is a perfect combination. And if the government of Australia owes Bryson a hearty thank-you for this book, so what?

(One last note: he's done a book and a half with Stephen Katz, who is in his own way delightful. But if Bryson has any sense at all, he'll take Alan Sherwin along on his next book trip. Bryson is always better with a companion, a foil, and Sherwin is perfect for that. In addition, Sherwin doesn't appear to hold a grudge, which is essential for someone who is traveling with Bryson. In Sunburned, many of the funniest and best bits involve Sherwin, even though he's in less than a fifth of book.)

One of Bryson's best books

Bryson's best book is "Notes From a Small Island," about traveling in Great Britain. It's one of the funniest books I've read. The British are funny, and Bryson knows them well after living in Britain for 20+ years.

His book about Australia, "In a Sunburned Country," is also entertaining. He studied Australian history, met many interesting locals, etc. After reading it, I feel like an expert on Australia and its people.

His book about Europe, "Neither Here Nor There," isn't so good. The problem is that he speaks no languages other than English. He didn't talk to anyone on this trip. Wwithout any characters (other than Bryson) the book isn't engaging. The book has only one joke, which he repeats: "The waiter/hotel clerk/taxi driver didn't speak English so I tried to make him understand that I needed..." Some of these moments are quite funny, but they don't constitute a book. Bryson didn't study the places he visits. Unlike the Australian book, you learn almost nothing about the countries he visited.

Bryson's book about America, "I'm a Stranger Here Myself," failed to make me laugh. It reads like a series of Erma Bombeck columns. Bryson comments about various aspects of his life in a small town in New England. Not other people's lives, which might have been interesting, but only about his domestic life.

I got only a few chapters into his book about the Appalachian Trail, "A Walk in the Woods." I wasn't amused that two people with no backpacking experience would attempt a six-month hike. After several chapters of Bryson repeating one joke -- "I know nothing about any of this!" -- I stopped reading.

This suggests that the old advice "write about what you know" is worth following. It also made me realize that traveling is only enjoyable if you do two things: meet interesting people, preferably by speaking their language; and studying the area you're visiting.

Review by Thomas David Kehoe, author of "Hearts and Minds: How Our Brains Are Hardwired for Relationships"

Excellent! Get this book!

Speaking as an American who moved to Australia a year ago to live and work, I was instantly curious about this book after a friend recommended it to me. I thought it might be interesting to read another American's perspective on what it's like to experience this far away country that I've decided to call home.

First off, let me say that this book is an extremely easy and entertaining read from cover to cover and I never wanted to put it down. Bryson has a great writing style and he has a way of making you feel as if you're right there along side him as he travels the country, exploring the countryside and it's people. He travels far beyond the traditional tourists spots that most visiting Americans stick to when coming to Australia on vacation - namely Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Gold Coast, although his passages on these places are just insightful and funny as anything else in the book.

Bryson obviously did his research when he gets into the history behind these far flung places that dot the landscape of this vast country. He never bores you, and he has written a book that seemlessly blends historical fact with observational humor and brutally honest storytelling. I found myself nodding and laughing out loud at so many of his observations about the people, having experienced so many of the same things firsthand when I first arrived here.

I feel the Bryson hits the nail right on the head when he speaks of Australia as being a place where interesting things happen all the time.I agree wholeheartedly with him that it's unfortunate that this country 'down under' seems to go largely unnoticed by the rest of the world.

This book will give you more insight into Australia then any garden variety travel book. This book has heart, humor, and brutal honesty (the latter being what most standard travel books lack. They want to make you think that every single place in a country is worth your time).

If you've ever been curious about Australia I highly recommend this book. If you plan on visiting Australia in the future this book is definitely a must have. It will make you wish you were in Australia that much more. It truly is a special place and Bryson's book conveys this brilliantly.

To quote an excerpt:

"Australia is mostly empty and a long way away. It's population is small and it's role in the world consequently peripheral. It doesn't have coups, recklessly overfish, arm disagreeable despots, grow coca in provocative quantities or throw it's weight around in a brash and unseemly manner. It is stable and peaceful and good. It doesn't need watching, and so we don't. But I will tell you this. The loss is entirely ours."