![]() ![]() The only time Bryson truly loses his patience with the British is when it comes to the lack of appreciation they have for their own historical heritage. ![]() And so the bad food, the cranky hoteliers, the sewage-encrusted beaches are no longer national embarrassments, but become treasures we share through Bryson's eyes. Like any truly affectionate son, Bryson knows the faults of his beloved parent knows them and embraces them, for they are what define the object of his devotion. Subtitled "An Affectionate Portrait of Britain," the resulting book is a love letter to a nation from an adopted son. In so doing, Bryson discovers that he's become nearly as British as he is American and ends up wondering if he's going home or leaving it. After he and his English wife would move back to the United States, Bryson who also wrote the best-selling "The Mother Tongue" and "Made in America" decided to take a final tour around his adopted land before leaving. ![]() That seems the theme for Bryson's "Notes From a Small Island," if such a crazy quilt of a book can be said to have a theme. The only problem seems to be that after living nearly half his life in Britain, the U.S.-born Bryson is no longer quite sure just where home is. This review first appeared in the American Reporter in 1996.Īfter 20 years, Bill Bryson is coming home. ![]()
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