Book Review

 In A Sunburned Country

Bill Bryson

 https://www.amazon.com/Sunburned-Country-Bill-Bryson-ebook/dp/B000Q9ISSQ 

In a previous post I suggested travelogues as a means of reading enjoyment when we reading enthusiasts need a break from our favorite genre. So I decided to take my own advice.

     Admittedly I haven't finished the book yet. But with almost half of the three hundred pages behind me, I'm confident you are going to get an accurate idea of the author's journey through Australia. It should be noted the visit that inspired In A Sunburned Country was over twenty years ago. He rightfully makes the case for most of the rest of the civilized world being terribly ignorant about our southern most continent. But two more decades has made some marked differences in how often Australia comes up in mainstream news, so as far as current events that has changed to some extent. (We probably all remember the recent drought and the horrific bush fires that followed.)

     Bryson has such a gift for describing with the ludicrous side of life and of human nature. No one could make some of this stuff up! On the very first page of chapter one he makes the case for Australia "being a difficult country to keep track of " by relating a most astounding fact. Keep in mind you would have to search far and wide to find a person who is a source of greater facts on a wealth of subjects. Also, he lived in Great Britain for twenty years and no one has closer ties historically to Australia than Great Britain.

     I quote, "....in 1967 the prime minister, Harold Holt, was strolling along a beach in Victoria when he plunged into the surf and vanished. No trace of the poor man was ever seen again. This seemed doubly astounding to me - first that Australia could just lose a prime minister ( I mean, come on) and second that news of this had never reached me."

     In every way the extremes of Australia are verified by the author's trek (by foot, private vehicle, and train) from one end of the country to the other. It has vast expanses of empty space, is home to the most poisonous species of bugs and reptiles known to man, and the seas that border its shores have sharks and dangerous water life in abundance. ( I giggled out loud - an apology to the late unfortunate Jimmy Smith - in the relating of Bryson's skepticism about putting complete trust in lifeguards when venturing out from Freshwater Beach.)

     He also presents abundant proof of the variations of ways of life and populations with the keenest sense of observation. He provides the reader with intriguing and often humorous facts about Australia's historical past. He will introduce you to the Aborigines, who sadly have found bridging the gap to modern culture a herculean feat.

     So why am I  liking the book enough to finish it but not enough to give it a rave review? For the same reason I came to the same conclusion in a previous Bryson book, A Walk in the Woods. 

     Bill Bryson often displays what to me is a very crass  sense of humor. (I am sure he would find me a crushing bore.) If you aren't willing to loosen up with a few beers in the late afternoon, if you don't get tipsy now and then in the interests of having a good time, you are obviously straight-laced and uninteresting. Pornography, nudity, explicit language, make life amusing and more interesting. This attitude presents itself quite often.

     He lauds a liberated lifestyle but in  perplexing  contrast does the same when he happens upon a community that takes him back to the charm and uncomplicated life he remembers nostalgically from his childhood in the Midwest. 

     At the time this book was published he found the Aussies to be some of the most friendly and likeable people anywhere. He also scratches his head that they aren't as content or positive in their outlook as they used to be. Bryson sees that connection to their modernized cousins elsewhere but doesn't connect the dots as to why that is.

     It bothers me that such a brilliant and talented man cannot see the connection between throwing off all the constraints of Judao-Christian values and the loss of something so precious and crucial to the core of a healthy lifestyle and healthy society.

Not being to compartmentalize such conclusions from the book as whole, I give it 3 stars. The vast majority of readers rated it much higher. You can draw your own conclusions.