ISBN: 076790382X
Publisher: Independent
Year: 2000
Length: 304 Pages
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away
Synopsis & Analytical Review Framework
Every literary era is defined by works that attempt to challenge or document current human experiences. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson enters the domain with an intriguing premise, balancing diverse structural viewpoints to achieve a stable 3.89 average review score. Spanning approximately 304 pages of text, this edition invites analytical minds to break down its narrative mechanics and conceptual layout.
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. Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I'm a Stranger Here Myself 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.
To summarize this critique, I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away stands as a clear testament to Bill Bryson's ongoing dedication to mapping out complex narrative themes. By securing its unique position within the classification track, the text provides a robust analytical blueprint that will undoubtedly inform future discussions in this field.
Reader Critical Response Manifest
Definitely can tell it originated as a series of columns but still interesting
The funniest of Bryson's great books in my opinion. Laughed almost non-stop as I was driving and listening to the audio version read by the author. Delicious
I love Bill Bryson books. And that's why I had to stop reading this one. I got 100 pages in and stopped. It's a series if newspaper columns that don't flow. There's no real story. I did laugh out loud at one point but that couldn't save it. I had to give up before it ruined for future Bryson books.
A consistently enjoyable collection of essays. Bryson's theme this time is "returning to America after living for years abroad" and the book maintains its charm and wit as long as he sticks to the topic. He occasionally gets sidetracked into an "I'm an old guy who doesn't understand computers" shtick that gets pretty annoying. Still, these columns (which were originally written to explain America to Britons) do have a way of getting us to look at our own country in a new light.
Se lit tres bien le soir quand on ne veut pas s'embarquer dans de longues choses car c'est sous forme de chroniques. Malheureusement, les chroniques ont plus d'une dizaine d'annees et ca parait. Plusieurs etaient passees date...
I liked this book. Maybe I had the abridged ebook copy from my library? It was a nice in-between read. Light-hearted look at the differences between America and Great Britain.
As usual for Bryson: funny, self-deprecating look at life in the US as seen by an American returning from 20 years in the UK. I am not a huge fan of the style of book i.e. short anecdotes and observations clearly coming from BB's column in a periodical. This doesn't give enough time to develop his ideas, but the overall result is still highly amusing
While I agree that Bill Bryson is funny, I don't jive with so much cynicism. I'm not sure if he can look at a sunset without finding some fault in it. Not my style, though very informative.
Only a few chapters in, this book provoked such incurable laughter as to completely unnerve my cat, causing him to bite me and bar his gums. Simply put: a MUST read!
January 1, 1996 A very funny perspective. It must be hard to be both a native and an outsider. Fortunately, Bryson is funny as hell, so the difficulty of it all is related in a way, that might make you laugh out loud, if you're a laughing out loud sort of person. Library copy
Correlated Literary Frameworks
No correlated reference modules mapped for this specific print matrix index.