Stephen Fry in America

I usually like Stephen Fry, but I thought his wide-eyed, "gosh golly America wow!" attitude was most of the time annoyingly twee, and occasionally just insulting. (comparing "hillbilly" musicians to dogs? really??) ( )

Perhaps it takes a Brit to convince an American to take another look at the abundance of good things that the USA has to see and experience. Well, maybe it helps if the American reading happens to think highly of Stephen Fry and also be an Anglophile. I gained a new appreciation for the sheer variety and wonder of our 50 states, and am thinking that the next big vacation should be to one or more of those marvelous states. I also really appreciated Fry's commentary on the people and places he encounters - while he clearly states his biases/dislikes, he doesn't overpower his ideas with those biases - he keeps an open mind as much as possible. But he also refrains from the other extreme,where all is treated with kid gloves and is marvelous and squeaky clean. You know that when he liked a place, he was sincere. Sincerity, scenes of beauty, and Stephen Fry in lots of uniforms that make him look 'ten kinds of dick' make this a definite pickmeup. Waiting for the actual documentary to put on the Netflix queue. ( )

Stephen Fry traveled all states of the US for a BBC series. The book is a juxtaposition of anecdotes from each state. Some are interesting, some ar not. And in some cases the television version was better.

It took me a while to go through the book (hence the rating), it is not interesting enough. ( )

A delightful trip through the United States, where the author visited all 50 states (though giving a couple of them short shrift) in an attempt to try to figure out what America really is. I appreciate a book like this, which takes some time to appreciate the beauty of the country and what is good about it in a world where too many people think if one (or several) things are bad, all must be rotten. At first, though, I was worried this would be one of those books where he came in, visited people, found them nice, and wrote off all possibility that there might be some dark undercurrents; fortunately, this is not so. He does a pretty good job of catching part of the spirit of America, as good as can be expected in a whirlwind tour of short visits. The style is witty and often self-mocking, in a manner only the British can quite pull off, and he offers many profound insights. Now I am going to try to find the TV show that was the basis for this tour. ( )

This is no more than it claims to be - a visit to every state and even Fry, with only a page or four for each state, can only fail to engage and entertain.

An entertaining TV series that never would have and never did make a good idea for a book. ( )