In a Sunburned Country | Bill Bryson | A crocodile attack to my funny bone!

In a Sunburned Country | Bill Bryson | Australia thru the eyes of Bill Bryson

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In a Sunburned Cou...

	In a Sunburned Country Bill Bryson Broadway, 2001 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 404 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiousity.

Despite the fact that Australia harbors more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else, including sharks, crocodiles, snakes, even riptides and deserts, Bill Bryson adores the place, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond that beaten tourist path. Wherever he goes he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging, and these beaming products of land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine fill the pages of this wonderful book. Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide.

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A crocodile attack to my funny bone!

A visit to with an old friend with map in hand and adventure ahead is what I was to discover upon re-reading Sunburned Country. I first read Bryson's book about his trip to Australia when it was first published and recently recommended it to friends who are traveling with us down under later in the month. They loved the book and I thought it might be fun to re-read it in preparation for our trip. Now, I normally don't waist time going back to a book I have already read when I have too many on the shelf as it is. But this was a most rewarding and entertaining experience. Bryson is a traveler who specializes in being an historian of the lesser knows. If facts about plants and animals that can kill you in Australia could, in fact, kill you while reading about them; well, no doubt, I'm then now dead from a crocodile attack to my funny bone. What fun!

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Australia thru the eyes of Bill Bryson

First off I'd like to say that Bill Bryson is a very humorous and talented writer. In a Sunburned Country is full of Bryson's humorous anectdotes and fluid --entertaining writing style. The book is certainly worth purchasing just for the laughs it provides and the opportunity to experience Australia thru the eyes of a real travel pro.

The only criticism I have of the book is that sometimes I feel that Bryson is making some of his unique encounters up--or embellishing his anecdotes and stories with a good dose of bullocks. But whatever his methods--I must admit that I loved the book and it has paved the way for me to make additional purchases of Bryson's travel books.

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A good read before going

I read this book before returning to Australia after forty years. I'd been there as an exchange student in 1967 and returned in 2008 with my grown son, for two weeks. I'd asked my son to read it to after I finished so that he'd have an idea what Australia was about. Bryson reports fairly and with humor. Even though it's been a while since it was written, what he wrote still holds true, although we found the music in public transportation in South Australia was all the way up to the 1980s, not the 1950s!

My only gripe with the book is his editorializing about how Australia has treated the Anangu (aboriginals). Americans have no moral high ground to stand on with respect to how we've treated native peoples. And while I do not pretend any expertise in the history or current affairs of Australia and aborigines, I believe Bryson's opinions in this area are inappropriate.

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Bryson? Yes. Informative? Definitely. Funny? Not very.

Reviewing a book that has been in print for eight or so years has an almost Rip Van Winkle feel to it. Like I just woke up and discovered I had missed something while asleep. However, I have to admit that picking up this Bryson "travel narrative" much later than the reviewers before me, and having read many of the positive reviews posted, I am sorry to say my tardy review won't be among them. This book just isn't in the same category as NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, or even his tale of a trek along part of the Appalachian Trail in A WALK IN THE WOODS. The humor is just not there. It's as though Bryson was compelled to write 300 plus pages of something about Australia by his publisher and went to the library to find interesting bits and pieces among the stacks to pad it with. There is a lot of historical, geological, zoological, and botanical information contained within. In fact, the bibliography at the back of the book has three pages of very tiny print. While interesting and informative, especially to anyone who is going to Australia for the first time or has just returned from there and wants to relive the experience, there's little for the armchair traveler to really enjoy. The author doesn't interact with many locals, unlike his previous books, and goes off on a tangent about "the invisible people" (aka the Aborigines). It's a social commentary about the sad plight of these people when their culture clashes with white Australia. He interviews a few white people in the outback about their view of "Abos," (which is generally one of indifference) but doesn't talk to an Aborigine about his/her view of life alongside whatever whites he/she has had contact with. That aside, I have to say that I still like the way Bryson writes, when he's not lecturing me about flora and fauna or offering his liberal social opinions and sticks to well-written humorous slices of life. Sorry, Bill, I just can't recommend this book.

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Is Bryson a Drunk?

I read Bryson's "A short history of nearly everything" and I did enjoy the book. However when reading "In a Sunburned Country" I have to say I was disappointed at the overall tone of the book.

While fans of Bryson may think he is humorous, most of his humor falls flat and somewhat tasteless especially in his cavalier treatment of the beloved game of Cricket. Please, if you don't understand cricket and never grew up with it, you have no clue what you are talking about, and the attempted humor was pathetic.

Another thing I find mildly offputting is that he mentions in the beginning of the book that it feels great to land in Australia where everything seems similar to America and how civilized it is, and that people look like you. Is he saying that the people are white? So if I was not a white person I should feel uncomfortable? There are many other countries not too far from Australia where the people may not look like Bryson, but that does not mean one can't feel comfortable and feel that people of those countries are friendly.

It also appears that all Bill Bryson and his traveling buddy want to do is find bars and drink excessively. He does not really explore the culture of Australia in a deeper sense, it reminds me more of two college kids driving through another country.

Overall the book gave me a decent idea of Australia, but now I am not sure how accurate it is.

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