Comments on: Dear Bill Bryson, I Have a Bone to Pick With You

By: jana

jana — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:56:13 +0000

I just reread this book. I love Bryson’s oeuvre, but must admit that I remember this one being better than it was. I think he’s really grown as an author, and while he still can/will be humorously snarky in his later books, it doesn’t seem as off-handed and dismissive as it does in this one. Also, you can see that Lost Continent was sort of the testing ground for some of his ideas about midcentury America that he would more fully explore in his memoir, Thunderbolt Kid.

By: jasmine

jasmine — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:23:02 +0000

I forgot to contribute this when this first went up, but you definitely have to give Bryson another chance. I loved his brief and hilarious history of the English language, Mother Tongue. I own the book, if you want to borrow it!

By: AcaciaO

AcaciaO — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:42:38 +0000

@Mary YES. I meant to ask this, but who exactly *is* is target audience here? Clearly not any of the citizens of the places he visits (except maybe Savannah or Santa Fe.) He doesn’t really seem to like big cities or big city people either, so I can only presume his target is Martians.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:36:02 +0000

P.S. I wish I could stop beginning sentences with OMG. Sorry for that.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:25:47 +0000

OMG you are so right. I love reading and reviewing books, and I thought Bryson’s writing would be interesting, maybe show a unique side of these small towns he drove through, maybe shed some light on what it means to grow up in rural America… something. But I couldn’t finish reading this book. I don’t think I even got past the first few chapters. I kept trying, but he’s so condescending, and not even justifiably. Just starts with this whole “I went to Europe, then came back as an adult and thought my hometown and everyone in it really sucked.” Some of the people he makes fun of strike me as people I could’ve grown up with. I felt it was obvious he didn’t want me as a reader because I grew up in a small town and, though I’ve moved away, I still love my home and the people in it.

For me, since I’m not from DC, it’s not about DC. I just feel that Bryson’s whole narrative persona is built on criticizing others. You can be really funny by poking at your characters, but if you only use that humor to further the idea that you are superior to them, I begin to wonder what you’re accomplishing and why you’re writing this book all about people for whom you care very little.

And of course by “you” I mean Bryson. Anyway, Accacia, I’m so glad you wrote this.

By: Mike Wise

Mike Wise — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:23:54 +0000

This insight is gold: “I think part of what makes him seem so whiny at times is that I didn’t grow up with grand illusions of that America, or if I did, I didn’t have them very long. We come at it now with the post-modern post-irony brand of cynicism, one that isn’t surprised or outraged by bureaucratic inefficiency but is also somewhat offended by Bryson’s poking fun at Southern accents and overweight people who shop at Wal-Mart because, hey man, they’re just living too.”

That and your ability to call him out and spot his racially insensitive missives, at the least, has made me a real of your literary criticism. You should do this for a living. : ).

By: Mal

Mal — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:35:11 +0000

Oh man this article was awesome. It’s great how people around here (and this is not meant to be sarcastic at all, it’s a good thing!) can make fun of their own city all they want, but when someone else comes along that doesn’t live here and belittles DC, we get so so defensive! I love that!

What’s wrong with jogging around the mall? I’m not on the hill (I’m an engineer for the Navy), and I go jogging on the mall all the time. Granted, I don’t do it at 10 am on a Wednesday, but still!

I’m interested to read this now, just because I’ve been looking to branch out from the chick lit that I’ve been buried in (guilty pleasure, I guess), and maybe it’ll give me a good laugh. I’m also in the generation of not having grown up with “grand illusions of America”.

By: Spirit o' Paul Casanova

Spirit o' Paul Casanova — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:27:27 +0000

You are not the first to think Bryson observations of America to be “second-rate”.

http://www.salon.com/books/review/1999/05/19/bryson/

I occurs to me that Sir William may have been search for some self-justification of fleeing the land of his birth for the “Small Island” by portraying smalltown America as a series of “shitholes”.

Is is me or should Bill Bryson always be pictured dressed for a Renaissance Faire, in tights, sporting a large medalion with his ham-sized fist wrapped around a big greasy turkey leg. Maybe I’m just being snarky.

and finally…with the lack of “fan base” for the ExpoNationals this would be the perfect chance to get a good seat to catch the MVP, Big Papi and Yuuuuoookkk.

By: AcaciaO

AcaciaO — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:12:15 +0000

@Kasdc you’ll have to let me know how you like it! I’m actually curious to read A Walk in the Woods, which has been the favorite Bryson of a lot of my friends.

By: kasdc

kasdc — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:32:01 +0000

I actually just put a hold that very book yesterday at the library. I’m very much looking forward looking to reading it now partly because of your description. Of course I’m from the generation before yours and tend to me a little more cynical. :D

By: KatieT

KatieT — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:16:34 +0000

“What he clearly doesn’t know, is that Capitol professionals push themselves so incessantly that, as I’ve said before, their only two sources of release are 1. to jog long distances and 2. to drink copious amounts at Happy Hour.”

Sheer genius.

But I adore Bryson, I’ve never been heard randomly bursting into laughter as much as I did when I read In A Sunburned Country before I went abroad there. I also like a Short History of Nearly Everything, which I read when I was abroad, pausing to read whole passages out loud to my boyfriend at the time. Give Bryson one more go, Acacia, then call game.