I found that his knee-jerk reactions against modern architecture got old very quickly. Oxford is full of great modern buildings which he didn't acknowledge. Although he's fairly perceptive, it does seem like he arrived in England with a fixed idea of what it should be like, rooted in its past, and could never quite forgive it for being something slightly different.
Also, as you say, his assumption of stupidity or ill-will on the part of everyone else is a bit adolescent.
Those are problems I'm grateful you've alerted me to, for all that I adore the man - mostly for the companion volume, Notes from a Big Country. That one really had me aching with the desire to have written it myself, as he hit right every single note about being a long-term expat returning to the US.
(Maybe I should reread it sometime and see if it holds up. If, that is, it's not too painful due to time-binding issues of a mostly political nature.)
The remarkable tunnels below Welbeck College, which he writes about, are about two miles from where I grew up. He must have literally walked past the secondary school I went to. (Not much of a claim to fame, but there it is.)
I read Notes from a Small Island when I'd been living in England for about five years, as have most of the North Americans (and Aussies/New Zealanders) of my acquaintance who live here. General consensus is that he has the English-speaking expat experience in England pretty well captured. There were bits that I found mean-spirited (it's been a while, but a mining community in County Durham comes to mind) but he's so funny I forgive him for it.
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Also, as you say, his assumption of stupidity or ill-will on the part of everyone else is a bit adolescent.
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(Maybe I should reread it sometime and see if it holds up. If, that is, it's not too painful due to time-binding issues of a mostly political nature.)
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