Made in America
Bill Bryson
Published in 1998 by Black Swan. First published 1994.
Not a travelogue, or even a Brysonian look at American culture, as I thought it would be when I bought the book. I was misled by the blurb, which is a little ambiguous, especially if read quickly, as I did while browsing in the bookshop. This is more or less a list of words and phrases in the English language that have an American origin. The list however is arranged in a roughly chronological fashion, with lots of notes or background stories taken from history and culture. This throws up a lot of trivia, many which debunk the commonly held beliefs regarding the events themselves, or about the words and phrases the events lead to. I read this book while on holiday in the US, but I found no real resonance with what I saw around me. Though surprisingly readable for what is really a kind of etymological dictionary, finally the book is a bore, with too few pleasurable moments for the amount of effort spent on it. I skipped quite a few paragraphs and sections.
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