Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country

Hardcover - 04 November, 2004 - Henry Holt and Co.
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By: Joe Queenan
ISBN: 0805069801

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Reviews by readers

laugh-out-loud funny

I don't know enough about pop culture or Britian to agree or disagree with all of Queenan's judgments or know whether he is 100% factually correct. So I really evaluate this book more as a work of humor than as a serious travel book.

Having said that, I loved this book! Here are some examples of lines that made me laugh:

"Young people insist that there are lots of things to do in Manchester, but mostly what they do is ecstasy."

"The greatest literary influence on most people's lives are books that are not very good . . . the defining literary experience in the average Anglo-American male's life is The Shining (take an ax and get rid of the entire family), The Hunt for Red October (Reds under the seabeds) or Jaws (family vacations always end badly)." (PS As someone who fondly remembers some of the trashy books I read in my youth, I actually agree with this statement as well as finding it amusing).

"Rosie O'Donnell is an extremely powerful comedienne, actress and talk show host who was briefly known as the Queen of Nice before revealing her true colors as the Spawn of Baal."

"For an American to stop and smell the roses, the coffee, or any combination thereof, is a repudiation of his national heritage . . . Americans are first and foremost consumers; like sharks, when they stop moving, pushing forward, buying things - they die. Obviously, sharks do not actually buy things, but my general drift is clear. Americans were not put on God's green earth to relax, reflect, dawdle, or ruminate."

"When you ask them how to get to Hadrian's Wall, they [local bus drivers] act as if you've just asked them for directions to the Silk Road or the Trans-Indonesian Highway. Gleeful at the traveler's admitted ignorance of the lay of the land, they guard potentially useful data about bus routes they way Rumpelstilskin conceals his name."

"I apologize if Germans with no blood on their hands object to the use of the perjorative term Hun, but after Auschwitz and Dachau all bets are off."

"Neither flashy nor communicative, this paragon of bourgeois taste and homespun attire [the Queen] seems like a very nice old lady who has had the misfortunate to be hemmed in by a self-replicating battalion of ding-dongs."

If you laughed (or at least smiled) at these phrases, you will probably like this book. If not, you won't.

His love affair with England

No two romances are the same, and so Joe Queenan's love of his wife's homeland is very different from Susan Allen Toth's, whose "My Love Affair with England" I read just a few weeks ago. Their resulting books are very different, too. Liking one over the other is largely a matter of taste, like preferring Anthony Bourdain over Emeril Lagasse in food-writing. I unquestionably prefer Tony Bourdain, and so it's probably no surprise that I found "Queenan Country" one of the best in the stack of books-about-England I've been reading lately.

It's important to note that Joe Queenan isn't really a "travel writer," which may be why so many of the reviewers on this page seem so disappointed. Readers looking for ideas about where to go and what to see won't find this title especially useful (although his chapter on how he awoke in Edinburgh; toured Carlisle, Hadrian's Wall, and Newcastle; and finished in Durham, all in the same day, definitely provides a certain sort of inspiration). Nor will those who hope he'll wax rhapsodic about his pilgrimage to the ancestral homeland -- which anyway is Ireland. Queenan's prose is insightful, opinionated, and funny. It's not sugar-coated, and he's not hesitant about criticizing where he thinks criticism is due.

Most of all, his prose is affectionate and personal. Again like Susan Allen Toth, Queenan has earned the right to his opinions because he's spent a lot of time in England over a great many years. These aren't the reflections of a first-time visitor, but someone who is writing about a land, and a people, he actually knows pretty well. That makes this a lot more than a "travel book." Queenan's writing style isn't to everyone's taste, but I find it hard to begrudge him the conclusions he's drawn, the value of his insights, or the quality of his prose.

Queenan up the nose

Queenan wasted his trip and my money. It's no wonder his wife stayed home. Queenan learned little or nothing about the REAL Britain. He is egotistical and pretentious, and his prose leans toward the turgid, repetitive and flatulent. Perhaps he thinks he's funny, though in truth, to use his own terminology, he's nothing but a wanker. Stick with Theroux and Bryson if you want to enjoy your travels.

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