For U.S. lovers

아주 오랜 만에 추천하고픈 책과 저자를 발견.

"I'm a Stranger Here myself"

by Bill Bryson.

영국에서 이십여간을 살던 저자가

고향인 미국에 복귀해서,

새로운 시각으로 미국의 문화와 미국인들의 성격을

분석한 책 - 하지만 아주 가볍게. 따라서 화장실용으로도 좋은 책임.

나같은 애미주의(愛美에미주의 아님)자에게는

그 사랑을 더욱 공고히 할 수 있는

기분 좋은 책이고,

고향의 변화와 발달로 겪는 묘한 이질감을

재치있게 표현했다는 점에서,

저자를 "감히" 알렝드보통에 비교하고 싶어질 정도.

- Coming back to your native land

after an absence of many years is a surprisingly

unsettling business,

a little like waking from a long coma.

You proffer hopelessly inadequate sums

when making small purchaces,

You puzzle over ATM machines

and automated gas pupms and pay phones,

and are astounded to discover,

by means of a stern grip on your elbow,

that gas station road maps are no longer free.

Happily, there is a flipside to this.

The many good things about America also took on a

bewitching air of novelty.

I was as dazzled as any newcomer

by the famous ease and convenience of daily life,

the giddying abundance of absolutely everything,

the boundless friendliness of strangers,

the wondrous unfillable vastness

(ahh...내가 너무 사랑하는 것들)

of an American basement,

the delight of encountering waitresses

and other service providers

who actually seemed to enjoy their work,

(그렇지, 그렇지)

the curiously giddying notion

that ice is not a luxury item

and that rooms can have more than one electrical socket.

As well, there has been the constant,

unexpected joy of recountering all those things

I grew up with but had largely forgotten:

baseball on the radi0, Jell-O with stuff in it,

the pleasingly comical sight of oneself in shorts.

All that counts for a lot,

in a strage way.