American Notes Book

Kipling is usually delightful, if somewhat unpredictable, and his wit and grip are as anticipated here. However, this book reads like a bitter rant, rambling, vitriolic, and abrupt. He clearly thought himself superior to this people who were barely a united civilization even yet, ironically lampooning them for taking like attitudes themselves. He writes of 1889 America as Dickens wrote of 1800-20 London, but without the subtlety and with decidedly more venom. The only thing he seemed to like of us was our fishing and our girls.