Review: Having a good time Outback

"In a Sunburned Country"
by Bill Bryson
Broadway Books
Travel/Humor
302 pages

June 26, 2000
Web posted at: 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT)

By Stephanie Bowen
Special to CNN.com

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Much like the country he writes about, there is something to be discovered around every bend in Bill Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country." His latest travel-adventure book is a comprehensive, compelling look at Australia.

Bryson attempts the daunting task of writing about an entire country's tourist attractions, accommodations, history, politics, plant and animal life, and people. And he accomplishes it all with the aplomb of a good storyteller, taking well-known facts and bringing them to life with new information. For example, most people know that Australia was formed when Britain decided it needed a place for its undesirables and shipped them off to Australia, a distant colony. Bryson highlights some curious details of what made those early settlers unwanted in their native country.

"One famously luckless soul had been caught taking 12 cucumber plants," Bryson writes. "Another had unwisely pocketed a book called 'A Summary Account of the Flourishing State of the Island of Tobago.' Most of the crimes smacked either of desperation or temptation unsuccessfully resisted."

Yet what makes this book really worth reading is Bryson's habit of continually putting Australia in perspective with the rest of the world, because - as he points out over and over - the country is virtually ignored in the international arena.

Take the California gold rush, cited in every American schoolchild's history book as a turning point for the West. It was nothing more than flash in the pan beside Australia's.

"Australia became seized with a gold fever that made the California rush seem almost pale and indecisive," Bryson writes. "Cities and towns became visibly depopulated as workers left to seek their fortunes. Shops lost all their clerks. Policemen walked off their posts. Wives came home to find a note on the table and the wagon gone."

That gold quest transformed Australia from a large prison to a country where people actually wanted to settle, he notes. "In less than a decade," Bryson writes, "the country took in 600,000 new faces, more than doubling its population."

"In A Sunburned Country" offers other glimpses into Australia's psyche. As late as 1949, for example, there was no such thing as Australian citizenship; an Australian officially was nothing more than a displaced Briton. "They swore allegiance to king and country, and when Britain went to war they unhesitatingly went off to die in foreign fields for her," writes Bryson.

As Bryson aficionados know, he tells his stories with a cunning wit and infallible humor. While giving his readers a brief cricket lesson, Bryson relays the experience of driving down a lonely road (one of many) and listening to a cricket match announced on the radio.

"Neasden, it appeared, was turning in a solid performance at square bowel, while Packet had been a stalwart in the dribbles, though even these exemplary performances paled when set aside the outstanding play of young Hugo Twain-Buttocks at middle nipple," Bryson recounts. "The commentators were in calm agreement that they had not seen anyone caught behind with such panache since Tandoori took Rogan Josh for a stiffy at Vindaloo in '61."

Bryson describes Australia as a land of infinite discovery, with wonders that have yet to be recognized by the rest of the world. The Tree Top Walk, for example, "deserves to be world-famous. It consists of a series of cantilevered metal ramps, like industrial catwalks, wandering at exhilarating heights through the uppermost levels of some of the world's most beautiful and imposing trees." Redwoods may reach giddier heights, Bryson observes, but the Australian tingle trees outdo them. A redwood's "canopy is nothing - like [a] broom handle with nails hammered into it. Tingles, because they are broad-leaved, spread out with luxuriant profusion. Makes all the difference. You simply won't find a better tree."

The book has a map drawing in its front, but a wise reader should keep a moderately detailed map near. Bryson takes you through so many cities, towns and natural wonders that it's easy to get lost.

There are times when you long for Stephen Katz, Bryson's stumbling companion in "A Walk in the Woods." Bryson does most of his traveling alone, and many of his adventures are centered on his search for a good place for dinner. There are also times when you do not think you can possibly absorb one more fact about Australia.

But you can, and will. "In a Sunburned Country" covers much figurative and literal ground, and it's a worthwhile trip.

The Bill Bryson Site
Broadway Books: Books@Random

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