Bill Bryson Down Under

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Good
Jacket Condition: Good
Publisher: Transworld
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2000
Edition: First Edition

Description: 319 pages. Book and Jacket are both in Good condition. There is some light shelf and reading wear, but still a presentable copy. Ignoring Dangers-yet Curiously Obsessed By Them Bryson Journeyed To Australia And Promptly Fell In Love With The Country.

Publishers Description: After tales from the USA and Britain, Bill Bryson turns his roving eye to Australia, the only island that is also a continent and the only continent that is also a country. It is the driest, flattest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents. It has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way that anywhere else. Yet when Bill Bryson travelled to Australia he promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him The people are cheerful, the cities safe and clean, the food is excellent, the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. He tries to find out why Aussies are so cool, digging up a past that reveals convicts, explorers, gold diggers and outlaws. Industry Reviews So the question is: will Bill Bryson be able to deliver yet another travel book that educates, entertains and makes the delighted reader laugh aloud No worries, mate, because Bryson visits Australia (or Down Under, to use its proper title) doesnt disappoint. Our boy Bill declares his love for the Antipodes and proves it beyond doubt. This is another well-researched serio-comic treat, featuring Brysons classic creation - a bemused American tourist who masks his generosity of spirit and genuine wonder behind a wisecracking persona (the character known as Bill Bryson). Brysons delight in language and wordplay is perhaps his greatest gift. My favourites from Down Underinclude his collection of Australian Parliamentary epithets (you perfumed gigolo/mangy maggot/stunned mullet) and his encounter with a complete stranger in the shadow of a giant fibreglass lobster somewhere south of Melbourne (the punch-line to which is man crushed by falling bullocks bollocks). Another winner is the vicious parody of Ozzie radio cricket commentary (I dont think Ive seen offside medium slow fast pace bowling to match it since Baden-Powell took Rangachangabanga for a maiden ovary at Bangalore in 1948). Hes also acute on politics. The plight of the Aborigines in the land that they settled 45,000 years ago lingers in the mind. He remains tough on American junk culture, too: We Yanks have created a philosophy of retailing that is totally without aesthetics and totally irresistible. Brysons tales of overindulgence in the local brew - familiar from previous books - are still surreally funny but have become a little disturbing. Whether he knows it or not (and I expect he does), he is slowly revealing intriguing aspects of his complicated personality to his many readers. Theres an underlying world-weariness here, even an existential angst. EXCELLENT. I continue to find Bryson fascinating company, warts and all. Review by KERRY SHALE (Kirkus UK)

ISBN: 9780385408172