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I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away

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Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$14.95~~
Buy Used: $0.77
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Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7

ISBN: 076790382X
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.92
EAN: 9780767903820
ASIN: 076790382X

Publication Date: June 6, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Standard used condition.

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
In the world of contemporary travel writing, Bill Bryson, the bestselling author of iA Walk in the Woods/i, often emerges as a major contender for King of Crankiness. Granted, he complains well and humorously, but between every line of his travel books you can almost hear the tinny echo: "I wanna go home, I miss my wife." p Happily, II'm a Stranger Here Myself/I unleashes a new Bryson, more contemplative and less likely to toss daggers. After two decades in England, he's relocated to Hanover, New Hampshire. In this collection (drawn from dispatches for London's INight Day/I magazine), he's writing from home, in close proximity to wife and family. We find a happy marriage between humor and reflection as he assesses life both in New England and in the contemporary United States. With the telescopic perspective of one who's stepped out of the American mainstream and come back after 20 years, Bryson aptly holds the mirror up to U.S. culture, capturing its absurdities--such as hotlines for dental floss, the cult of the lawsuit, and strange American injuries such as those sustained from pillows and beds. "In the time it takes you to read this," he writes, "four of my fellow citizens will somehow manage to be wounded by their bedding." p The book also reflects the sweet side of small-town USA, with columns about post-office parties, dining at diners, and Thanksgiving--when the only goal is to "get your stomach into the approximate shape of a beach ball" and be grateful. And grateful we are that the previously peripatetic Bryson has returned to the U.S., turning his eye to this land--while living at home and near his wife. Under her benevolent influence, he entertains through thoughtful insights, not sarcastic stabs. I--Melissa Rossi/I

Product Description
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. brbrDelivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, bI'm a Stranger Here Myself/b 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.

Customer Reviews: Read 95 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Bryson's views on America November 26, 2008
A collection of essays on Bryson's experiences and views of America, sometimes annoyingly pretentious and pedantic (especially in the beginning), but more often clever, funny, and perfectly balanced between critical and appreciative of American culture. For me, part of the thrill is that Bryson is a local writer. Great, though slightly dated, but beautiful and humorous and original collection chronicling nature, American commercialism, American communities, and American personality and nostalgia. Grade: A-

5 out of 5 stars

The travel essay master November 3, 2008
If you've lived outside the US, come from another country or ever wondered what people from other places think of Americans and the US on our home turf then this is a book you have to read. If this was written by a foreigner I might have taken some offense to parts of it. Bryson is an American and these are his humorous takes on what he saw when he re-entered his own country to live here again after time spent in Europe. A fun read (and if you see yourself occasionally, laugh it off.)

4 out of 5 stars

One of his best October 16, 2008
I thought this was one of Bryson's best......short weekly column type stories on one subject. They were humorous, to the point, and folksy. He does (as he says himself) complain a bit too much, but if there's only one side to the story, it sounds like marketing material instead of a commentary. Enjoyed this one.

4 out of 5 stars

It's great to laugh at yourself if you are living in America October 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is the 2nd book I have read by Bill Bryson. I enjoyed it! I admire someone who can take normal life in America and write with such humor. I found myself giggling every few paragraphs. Such talent this writer has. br /Basically this book is filled with essays that are organized by chapters. He writes about all kinds of things about America, after moving to New Hampshire after living in Britain for 20 years. He writes about baseball, shopping, lawyers, over-the-counter medicine, drive-inn movies, computers, waste, airplanes and taxes among countless other things that sets America apart from other countries. The thing I love about Bryson's writing is, I learn something as I laugh thru the pages. His outlook on things is sometimes like reading my mind and putting it on paper. I highly recommend these books and look forward to reading others by this author.

3 out of 5 stars

Too much America bashing... September 23, 2008
Not his best work. He is getting a bit too left leaning but still funny at times.

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