Notes from a Big Country (Paperback)

by Bill Bryson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Des Moines, Iowa born writer Bryson's first success was the travel book "The Lost Continent". After living in England for several years, he wanted to go back to the USA to find the perfect little US town of his past, he lovingly called Amalgam. More travel books followed, in the form of "Neither Here Nor There" (where he travels through Europe), "Notes From A Small Island" (where he travels around the United Kingdom, before returning back with his to the USA to live there for good) and "A Walk In The Woods" (where he walks the Appalachian trail). After moving back to the States, Bryson started to write a column for "The Mail on Sunday Night and Day" magazine. This is a collection of these column entries. Bryson writes about everything from everyday chores, to sueing people, the beach, TV, movies, air conditioners, college, Americana, injury dangers, wasting resources and holiday seasons.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Black Swan (September 16, 1999)
• ISBN-10: 0552997862
• ISBN-13: 978-0552997867
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #785,221 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Coming home ain't easy but it sure is funny....!, March 19, 2001

By	R. Peterson "International citizen" (This month? In Tbilisi, Georgia (Former Soviet Republic)) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Notes from a Big Country (Audio Cassette)

Bryson, one of the funniest 'blokes' around, has collected a series of articles he was commissioned to write for a London newspaper. After living for twenty years in English he has moved his family back to the States to the lovely Hanover, NH to set up life anew. To preface these very funny pieces he explains that although he spent his youth in the sticky summers of Iowa (and retains a deep love for the game of baseball) he spent his adulthood in the UK where he learned to deal with grown-up issues (mortgages, taxes, putting in screens, getting the lawn mowed whilst on holiday, etc..). This is the perfect preface because, of course, he now finds that he is confronted with the country of his birth and is acutely aware of all of the ridiculous things he can now view as an outsider. He speaks to us about the pleasures of living in a small town where they (he is amazed) don't have to lock the doors and he can go to an honest-to-God diner for the slop they serve there as well as the absurdities found in every aisle of the typical American supermarket (the piece about the trip to the market and his insistence on buying a cart full of junk food that Mrs. B tells him he can only get if he will really eat it is a riot) and his discovery of 'breakfast pizza'. You don't have to have lived overseas to understand what can be frustrating about returning 'home' into culture shock once you read Bryson's simple and frankly logical, descriptions of what he sees after his absence. And any American who HAS dealt with the bureaucracies in other countries will weep with laughter and feel the pain as Bryson tries to get his wife (of 20+ years) a green card and to get the US government, sometime later, to divulge her social security number. Very, very funny stuff.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Same Book - Different Title, June 7, 2001

By	"tracyby" (Jonhstown, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Notes from a Big Country (Audio Cassette)

If you read "I'm a Stranger Here Myself", dodn't but this book.

I believe "I'm a Stranger...." is the American release of "Notes....Big Country"

Regardless, they're both an excellent collection of short essays. Typical funny, witty, smart-alec Bryson.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to America, April 19, 2005

By	Johann Nemetz (Germany and Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Notes from a Big Country (Paragon Softcover Large Print Books) (Hardcover)

Bill Bryson's book is one of the most funniest books I ever read. I read it on flights from Europe to America and in american restaurants and the poeple looked at my when I was laughing and I wiped the tears from my eyes. All these funny stories writen with some black british humor about the american way of live from a man born in Iowa, living as an adult for 20 years in Britain and returning back to NH are true in the eyes of an european. When I came first to the USA, aged 45, I was full of prejudice. When I left, I knew everything was true and it's documented in this book. This is the way for aliens to learn how to love the american citizens and the american everyday live.