Brig
Railway town in the upper Rhône valley, canton of Valais, Switzerland. See Switzerland (Literary) and the Travel note Switzerland.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither Here Nor There | Bill Bryson | setting | Bryson’s first Swiss night, in a town that doesn’t know what to do with itself. |
Neither Here Nor There — Bill Bryson (1991)
Source: Readwise highlight
Brig was a bit of a strange place.
- Role: setting
- In the book: Opening of chapter 17. He takes a room at the Hotel Victoria overlooking the station and goes out for food. Brig was once a staging post between Zürich and Milan but now “looked as if it didn’t quite know what to do with itself”, with shops selling refrigerators and televisions; then he realises shops everywhere do that, and that the real trouble is he is no longer in Italy.
- Why it matters: The town marks the border mood shift: the first pang of missing Italy, and the start of his sour Swiss chapter.