Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Qatar, awash in petrodollars, find joy in all that cash? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions. (2007)
This is a great premise and I am thoroughly enjoying reading this book. It is not really about "bliss" but about happiness, though it was clever not to put "happiness" in the title! The best part is learning a lot about places and tidbits about happiness which are interwoven in the text. I read a lot about the topic of happiness since I am the author of 14,000 Things to be Happy About.: Revised and Updated edition and I definitely recommend Mr. Weiner's book.
The author tries to define happiness with reference to
noted faraway places. As such, he has created a global
database of happiness naming the happiest places and
the most miserable alike. Bhutan has sought to quantify
the concept by tracking GNH or Gross National Happiness.
This concept has application in the USA because GNH
could be a pointer to a person's health and well being.
Happiness, itself is in the nature of a philosophical
universal very much like love, thoughtfulness and kindness.
Bhutan charges $200 per day for visitors. The country
is a lab of human betterment. Crime is low and life
expectancy is high. Health care is free.
All rulings are made through the prism of GNH.
The government of Qatar is described. Qataris favor retaining
the old. The government pays a salary to Qatar college students.
Saud bin Mohammad al-Thai is one of the richest men in the world
with well over $1.5 billion dollars. Seats on the Qatar Airline
are adjustable infinitely.
Iceland is another place which ranks high on the happiness scale.
The purest form of the Viking language is purported to be spoken
here. All governments are concerned about happiness; yet, some
measure and live it better than others. The work is somewhat
of an oddity in today's stressful world.
In the interest of full-disclosure, I should note that Eric Weiner is a friend of mine. I'm also a journalist, and I've worked in some of the same spots Eric has during his 10 years with NPR. On a couple of occasions, I've witnessed his grumpiness in action in the field.
I've also read several travelogues and journalist memoirs in my day - probably a dozen. It seems nearly all my colleagues write them.
And I'm a fan of Eric's.
GOB is funny and smart. And rather than being just the thinnest of premises (or excuses) for writing a book -- like so many journo memoirs/travelogues are -- GOB offers a genuine, intelligent and funny(!) examination of happiness and how it's defined around the world. Eric takes himself seriously enough to matter, but not so serious as to suffer from that faux earnestness that plagues so many other books by journalists.
I'm not convinced Eric will ever entirely shrug off his droopy-dog tendencies, his writing has always transcended the grumpiness. GOB had me chuckling out loud on several occasions. It has fallen in the same category in my mind as Sarah Vowell and David Sedaris. And you don't have to know the guy to like it.
