Bryson goes alone

Bill Bryson tours Europe alone in Neither Here Nor There (1992), and one can understand why after reading the book. His friend Stephen Katz made the grand tour of Europe with Bryson some two decades earlier, and Bryson is still ridiculing Katz in this book, so much so that it almost seems Katz remains at his side. As if eternal ridicule were not reason enough for not traveling with Bryson, listening to his complaints about and confrontations with people he meets along the way would be another.

Of course, reading about these complaints and confrontations is another matter. It is why Bill Bryson's travel books are so much fun.

His driver in northern Norway "drove as if we were in an arcade game." A certain bar "was like a funeral parlor with a beverage service."  After a visit to a German restaurant he writes, "It should have been written into the armistice treaty that the Germans would be required to lay down their accordions along with their arms." Cologne is " a dismal place." Bulgaria "isn't a country, it's a near-death experience."

At times the author is pleased with his service and delighted with places he visits. Somehow these passages just aren't as pleasurable to read. We like Bill Bryson best when he's unsettled, at least as long as we are not the tourist at his side. This may explain why whenever he travels, his wife seems to find a reason to stay at home.