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Bill Bryson's African Diary (2002)

by Bill Bryson

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1,2893714,708 (3.33)102
Biography & Autobiography. Travel. Nonfiction. HTML:From the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body comes a travel diary documenting a visit to Kenya. All royalties and profits go to CARE International.
 
In the early fall of 2002, famed travel writer Bill Bryson journeyed to Kenya at the invitation of CARE International, the charity dedicated to working with local communities to eradicate poverty around the world. He arrived with a set of mental images of Africa gleaned from television broadcasts of low-budget Jungle Jim movies in his Iowa childhood and a single viewing of the film version of Out of Africa. (Also with some worries about tropical diseases, insects, and large predators.) But the vibrant reality of Kenya and its people took over the second he deplaned in Nairobi, and this diary records Bill Brysonâ??s impressions of his trip with his inimitable trademark style of wry observation and curious insight.
 
From the wrenching poverty of the Kibera slum in Nairobi to the meticulously manicured grounds of the Karen Blixen house and the human fossil riches of the National Museum, Bryson registers the striking contrasts of a postcolonial society in transition. He visits the astoundingly vast Great Rift Valley; undergoes the rigors of a teeth-rattling train journey to Mombasa and a hair-whitening flight through a vicious storm; and visits the refugee camps and the agricultural and economic projects where dedicated CARE professionals wage noble and dogged war against poverty, dislocation, and corruption.
 
Though brief in compass and duration, Bill Brysonâ??s African Diary is rich in irreverent, poignant, and morally instructive observation. Like all of this authorâ??s work, it can make the reader laugh, think, and especially, feel all at the s
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English (36)  Dutch (1)  All languages (37)
Showing 1-5 of 36 (next | show all)
Bill Bryson gehört zu meinen Lieblingsautoren, deshalb war ich auch sehr froh, als dieses kleine Buch mir in die Hände gefallen ist. Natürlich erreicht es nicht die Qualität seiner sonstigen Bücher, sondern erzählt nur ein paar Anekdoten rund um seine Kenia-Reise. Inhaltlich ist es natürlich längst überholt, denn auch an Kenia sind die letzten 20 Jahre nicht spurlos vorbeigegangen, aber trotzdem hat es mich einen Abend lang gut unterhalten. ( )
  Ellemir | May 25, 2022 |
3.5 stars More a short essay then a book ut if you like Bryson's writing as much as I do you'll enjoy this, and learn something about Africa and C.A.R.E. along the the way. ( )
  kevn57 | Dec 8, 2021 |
This is a diary as Bill Bryson travelled around Kenya, mostly visiting slums and refugee camps and similar places. He was travelling with people from an NGO/charity called CARE.

It was decent (44 pages for my ebook), but not nearly long enough. I would have loved for there to be more. He has his trademark humour, and he met some interesting people, but in one day, I’ve already forgotten much of it. It was just too short to really get “into”. ( )
  LibraryCin | Aug 22, 2020 |
This very short book is just what it says on the tin: A day-by-day accounting of Bryson's trip to Kenya as part of a CARE International site visit. The book, which was sold to raise money for CARE, suffers a bit from a lack of the usual madcap Bryson humor. Only his account of a hair-raising flight on a small propeller jet in bad weather got an out-loud chuckle from me. I can understand why, when he's trying to educate people about the need for donations to a worthy non-governmental institution, he would tone down the yuks, but pedantic Bryson is not my favorite Bryson. I enjoyed learning more about Kenya and its people, as well as what CARE does, so this was far from a total loss. And now I'm off to send a donation to CARE, since I checked this out from the library and thus did not pay my "fair share". ( )
  rosalita | Mar 14, 2018 |
Erm, short, is what I thought, to be completely frank about it. When I got to the end (page 40 of 75 in the ebook) I wondered what on earth could be in the rest of the book. A whole chapter from 'At Home' and some promotional blurb for the charity that sent him to Africa in the first place.

So, overall, a strange publication. I enjoyed what there was, and applaud its charitable aims. But why bother adding the 35 pages of 'At Home'? They were interesting, but, in my view, detracted from the point of the African excursion. Now I'm thinking about architecture, not the good work of CARE in Africa. ( )
  AJBraithwaite | Aug 14, 2017 |
Showing 1-5 of 36 (next | show all)
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In the late 1940s and early 1950s after he became a little too saggy to fit into a Tarzan loincloth without depressing popcorn sales among cinema audiences, the great Johnny Weissmuller filled the twilight years of his acting career with a series of low-budget adventure movies with titles like Devil Goddess and Jungle Moon Men, all built around a character called Jungle Jim.
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Biography & Autobiography. Travel. Nonfiction. HTML:From the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body comes a travel diary documenting a visit to Kenya. All royalties and profits go to CARE International.
 
In the early fall of 2002, famed travel writer Bill Bryson journeyed to Kenya at the invitation of CARE International, the charity dedicated to working with local communities to eradicate poverty around the world. He arrived with a set of mental images of Africa gleaned from television broadcasts of low-budget Jungle Jim movies in his Iowa childhood and a single viewing of the film version of Out of Africa. (Also with some worries about tropical diseases, insects, and large predators.) But the vibrant reality of Kenya and its people took over the second he deplaned in Nairobi, and this diary records Bill Brysonâ??s impressions of his trip with his inimitable trademark style of wry observation and curious insight.
 
From the wrenching poverty of the Kibera slum in Nairobi to the meticulously manicured grounds of the Karen Blixen house and the human fossil riches of the National Museum, Bryson registers the striking contrasts of a postcolonial society in transition. He visits the astoundingly vast Great Rift Valley; undergoes the rigors of a teeth-rattling train journey to Mombasa and a hair-whitening flight through a vicious storm; and visits the refugee camps and the agricultural and economic projects where dedicated CARE professionals wage noble and dogged war against poverty, dislocation, and corruption.
 
Though brief in compass and duration, Bill Brysonâ??s African Diary is rich in irreverent, poignant, and morally instructive observation. Like all of this authorâ??s work, it can make the reader laugh, think, and especially, feel all at the s

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