2009 Dewey Decimal Project: 910.4 W
Oct. 7th, 2009 09:19 amEven though I didn't finish it until this week, Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World was my nonfiction book for September.
The book works much better as a travelogue than as a happiness book. I think the problem with it as a happiness book is that he frames it as his own search for happiness, but he's not particularly optimistic that it's possible. At one point, someone tells him he's "addicted to sadness," which he seems to agree with, and that thread of grouchiness doesn't help with the happiness aspect of the book. I also had trouble with the fact that he seems to think he can know what the place is like while staying for only a short time and talking to people. Of course, he's a correspondent for NPR, so that is the framework he works under. I have to say that I'm also starting to get a little wary of the nonfiction writer's humorous asides. I liked them when I started reading The Geography of Bliss, but by about halfway through, I was sick of them, and I think they're a common trick of nonfiction writers that works better for some (Mary Roach) than others (Eric Weiner).
The trip does do him some good, and Weiner ends up using some of the strategies he learns along the way in his life back home, which I appreciated. I also liked the way his epilogue ties together all of the places he's been.
Overall, if you read this as a travelogue, I don't think you'll be disappointed. If, like me, you expected it to be a happiness book, you might not get what you wanted.
The book works much better as a travelogue than as a happiness book. I think the problem with it as a happiness book is that he frames it as his own search for happiness, but he's not particularly optimistic that it's possible. At one point, someone tells him he's "addicted to sadness," which he seems to agree with, and that thread of grouchiness doesn't help with the happiness aspect of the book. I also had trouble with the fact that he seems to think he can know what the place is like while staying for only a short time and talking to people. Of course, he's a correspondent for NPR, so that is the framework he works under. I have to say that I'm also starting to get a little wary of the nonfiction writer's humorous asides. I liked them when I started reading The Geography of Bliss, but by about halfway through, I was sick of them, and I think they're a common trick of nonfiction writers that works better for some (Mary Roach) than others (Eric Weiner).
The trip does do him some good, and Weiner ends up using some of the strategies he learns along the way in his life back home, which I appreciated. I also liked the way his epilogue ties together all of the places he's been.
Overall, if you read this as a travelogue, I don't think you'll be disappointed. If, like me, you expected it to be a happiness book, you might not get what you wanted.