Really interesting book about the history of Canada told with great humor. ( )

Part travel journal, part autobiography. This is a delightful and often fun tour across Canada and Canadian history. ( )

A very entertaining series of vignettes taking the reader from BC to Nfld hitting some of the non-conventional locations across the country. My feeling is that this book is funnier than [b:This is Happy|17455541|Happy, Happy, Happy|Phil Robertson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1362252767s/17455541.jpg|24346221] and I actually laughed out right a couple of times, and once I was still laughing a few paragraphs later. Ferguson has a great way of including some history in a non-dry way and also sharing comic self-deprecating stories of himself and his family. It makes a person want to venture through the country, if only he would be the tour guide! ( )

Style: partially rather dull / lame, in places really nice. Lacks consistency as it is.
Content: to present a country by visiting a dozen more or less random places is not the worst way to proceed. Thanks to the personal insights, the places make sense and Canada does, too - as far as possible.
Three to four

Right, so Will Ferguson's apparently a columnist of some kind who writes occasional books about Canada. This one is a series of trips across the country from west to east. The best parts are where he talks about his childhood and various regions' folk histories. The worst parts are when he invokes any kind of poetry (he is a self-described failed poet) or humor.

He manages to be self-deprecating and pretentious at the same time, and I suspect it's all part of his "everyman" persona, but it grates, oh does it grate. Also, the last two chapters feel pasted on, and the attempt to say something compelling about how awesome Canada and Canadians are feels forced and artificial. I really wish his editor had demanded another revision, even if by ghost writer.

But like I said, the areas he knows from having lived in, rather than the areas where he's merely a tourist, are really good. Also, the polar bear chapter is entirely fun...possibly because I dig polar bears, but also because he nearly gets himself killed.

Which...see, I really dislike schadenfreude, but there's a whole Homer Simpson "Heh, what a dumbass" attitude to his self-projection that makes me laugh AT his mistakes rather than with them. Which makes me wonder if this is the Canadian national sense of inadequacy talking, or if it's just the author's particular issues showing.

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