An entertaining and humorous account of one very British man's quest to visit all 50 states. Fry doesn't hold back one bit, and his superciliousness can be a little trying at times, but he owns his statements. The fish out of water element is strong here, and entertaining. And Fry's transformation over the months of his travels, from the pasty white bumblef*ck in Maine to the tanned white bumblef*ck in Hawaii is remarkable. The biggest gripe I have is that this book lacked editing, with obvious and stupid typos throughout. Is this de Tocqueville? Of course not, but it is one of my favorite British actors getting himself into all kinds of scrapes wandering through this vast, amazing country I call home. I found this book great fun to read and very educational, I'm a fan of Stephen Fry anyway and watched the TV show he made of the same title.The book covers each and every state in the US which Fry personally visited on a whistlestop trip in his London taxi cab. Each chapter is full of information about each state, its own unique history and what there is to see. Having said that this book isn't a trourist guidebook at all and often overlooks famous landmarks. The point of the book is to find out more about the people themselves than the extensive landscape of America although obviosuly you cannot really include one without the other.My only critsism of the book is that not all the states get fair coverage at all. I am certain it is due to lack of time and money on the BBCs part (America is absolutely huge after all) but some states only get a page of information when others get 9-10 pages each.
Brilliant insight into 'the Americans'. Fry is funny, honest and a little spoiled but that doesn't affect the writing. The book emphasises the unknown parts of america, that what the average tourist doesn't see and does this really well. He talks to, works with and dinnes with very interesting people and I have learned a lot about the country I am crazy about visiting again. Why 4 and not 5 stars? Because some chapters are very, very short and only talk about 1 aspects of an entire state. I would have liked a bigger book, maybe i'm just being greedy.
—Codney
Brilliant insight into 'the Americans'. Fry is funny, honest and a little spoiled but that doesn't affect the writing. The book emphasises the unknown parts of america, that what the average tourist doesn't see and does this really well. He talks to, works with and dinnes with very interesting people and I have learned a lot about the country I am crazy about visiting again. Why 4 and not 5 stars? Because some chapters are very, very short and only talk about 1 aspects of an entire state. I would have liked a bigger book, maybe i'm just being greedy.
—Sarah
A great read with plenty of facts about the States.
—shahla
