A Field Guide To The English (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
NYTimes reporter Sarah Lyall married an Englishman and moved to London in the mid-nineties. Since then, she's faithfully written down her close-range observations of her adopted country. The result is this book. I first heard about it when a friend and I made a pilgrimage to Politics and Prose in D.C. and we found copies for lovely low prices. As a regular partaker of any kind of British-accented entertainment I can get my hands on, I was in. I immediately got a kick out of the cover, which shows Queen Elizabeth as, what else, a tea bag. Ha!It was a quick read and even though it is about a whole other country, I didn't even need my dictionary. Lyall's look at Britain comes through decidedly American eyes, with the tone of a sort of conspiratorial, whispered conversation with her fellow Americans where she says, repeatedly, "I love the British, but yes, they really are like that." This bothered me at first and I wondered at her emphasis on the mockable and ridiculous, but in the end, I think she makes it pretty clear that to British folks, we Americans are just as odd and stereotypical (and mockable and ridiculous). We each have a distinct culture and way about us, and it's okay. The parts I didn't like run more toward personal taste and interest, and had mostly to do with swearing, drinking and sex. The parts I did like were laugh-out-loud funny, including whole chapters about Cricket, food and weather, and of course finding out about the British love of hedgehogs. Another highlight for me was her revelation that "there are so many badger-support groups that it was deemed necessary to create an umbrella organization, the National Federation of Badger Groups, now known as the Badger Trust, to coordinate all the disparate badger-related activity." For some odd reason, I just like knowing that.Overall, I think the author feels genuine affection for the UK and its people, but in the end I'm not sure she communicates it fully. While for the most part I enjoyed the book, I feel like she stopped short in each of her chapters, leaving the focus on the odd and inscrutable behavior (or what she deems so to an American reader) and forgetting to remind the reader of the best parts of British culture. Maybe, as the title implies, she just assumes that we're all Anglophiles and she doesn't need to explain that part. A highly entertaining read in which the author is not afraid to - politely and pleasantly - to go for the jugular.Being a New Zealander and spent three years in London in the 1990s as well as having an English mother it is always interesting to tease out meaning of Britishness. British/English culture is so influential and ubiquitous in its own right, then filtered through American, Australian and my own culture that it is fascinating to try to separate the distinctively British parts from the rest of the cultural strands that make up my life.I was worried in the first brief chapter where the author describes hanging out with an Earl at a picnic. Oh dear, I thought, here is an Anglophile American star struck by the earl and his stately home. Fortunately the chapter only served to illustrate an oddity about British life: that only an Earl would not bother to clean his crappy old land rover, or make a decent lunch and give his children cheap lolly water to drink - because only a genuine toff does not need to impress anyone. I couldn't help thinking that it was a warning to English readers that she, Lyall, mixed in high circles so wasn't to be dismissed lightly.The author does not hold back in her remorseless skewering of, the House Of Lords ( it still astonishes me that people there have been born into parliament for goodness sake, the Brits take it for granted), sexism in politics, the food etc. and it is all done in a coolly relentless way. As a NY Times staffer Lyall writes beautifully and with great exactitude and craft which I found a pleasure to listen to. Yes I had the audio version and the reader did a creditable job although she might have left some of the accents alone and schooled herself a bit better on correct pronounciation a ( Randolph Fiennes, rather than Rannulph, pronouncing Wodehouse to rhyme with roadhouse).Often these kind of books are a disappointment as the authors are too polite to put the boot in. Bill Bryson's Notes From a Small Island is a good example of this kind of politeness, I I found Lyall's acerbic tongue highly enjoyable. I will be fascinated to read the UK reviews I imagine they will be somewhat defensive and condemnatory of the book. I'm sure they can take it. I found the sections on the press particularly fascinating and I especially enjoyed her putting the boot into that complete phoney Toby Young.Highly recommended.
What do You think about A Field Guide To The English (2008)?
Very entertaining, and I certainly learned much about Britain!
—Brianna
