According to a book review in Time Magazine, the writer has two great gifts – he is easily bored
in places everyone else finds exciting, and can cleverly convey his sense of
insufferable boredom. Beijing ’s Forbidden City ? “Jeez, it went on forever, and every bit
looked axactly the same as every other bit.” Time spent in a small Norwegian
town promising a unique view of the northern lights? “It was like a lifetime of
disappointment compressed into less than a week, which actually felt like it
had lasted the best – in the sense of worst – part of a lifetime.” Polynesia ? It “translates as ‘many islands,’ all of which
you wish you were on instead of the one you actually are on.” Apparently, this
goes on and on. So what would it take to get Mr. Dyer mildly excited? More
dopamine binding in his mesolimbic pathway, I guess – though this could get in
the way of his wry humor.
