Different paths in travel writing

Bill Bryson

My reading of the two travel books I've reviewed this week, The Rhine by Ben Coates and Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson, happened to partly coincide, so naturally I found myself comparing and contrasting the two authors and the two books. Coates followed the Rhine River from mouth to source, while Bryson stopped in virtually every country in Europe, yet their paths also partly coincided.

In some ways the approach in each book is similar. Each writer comments on people and places along the way, telling us something of the history and culture, as well as adding personal details about their own experiences. Each complains about the many tourists they encounter, although somewhat sheepishly since they recognize they are themselves tourists.

Ben Coates

Yet these are quite different books. Coates seems more interested in presenting information than entertainment, the opposite of Bryson's strategy. One could almost use The Rhine as a travel guide, as Coates tells us what might be worth looking for and looking at along the river. Bryson deals more in exaggeration and hyperbole, so that a reader doesn't know if a place is really to be avoided or if the author just had a bad day when he visited.

At times Coates writes as if Bryson were his model. He can make amusing commentary, though never up to Bryson standards. At his worst, the younger author says things like this, "I was pleased to note that Boniface did indeed have a bony face. I looked around for someone to tell this hilarious joke to, but sadly there was no one." Bryson is at his worst when his humor turns cruel and crude, which it frequently does.

I can recommend both books, The Rhine if you are actually planning to visit that part of the world, Neither Here Nor There if you need a laugh.