Around the World in 180 Kvetches: The Geography of Bliss

By Breanne Boland March 20, 2008 Issue

The Geography of Bliss is part travelogue and part social exploration. Author Eric Weiner, journalist and self-confessed grump, decides to explore the world, visiting the highs and lows of human happiness and witnessing the different ways that countries approach contentment.

Weiner was formerly an NPR correspondent who traveled the world, bringing current events to his audience through sound bites and interviews. He takes much the same approach here, with plentiful visits with locals and quotes from experts. He speaks to drunken Icelanders, to bitter Moldovans, and to blissed-out Thais and the paunchy, middle-aged expats who love them.

He begins his journey at the World Database of Happiness in the Netherlands, where Dr. Ruut Veenhoven curates the archives of the positive psychology field - that is, the science of happiness. Dr. Veenhoven and his associates track happiness - by race and gender, by marital status, by level of education, and, of course, by nationality,

There are obvious conclusions, such as optimists being generally happier than pessimists, but others are less easily quantified. How, for instance, can you compare the happiness of Americans to that of the Chinese? Americans are individualists, seeking the best for themselves, while China has a proverb that states, “The nail that stands up gets hammered down.” How can you compare the happiness of groups that are so very different?

Weiner travels the world to find out. He gets stoned in the Netherlands, experiences the joy of efficiency in Switzerland, and visits Bhutan, where happiness is the express purpose of the government and its people. He wanders through India and Great Britain and Qatar, seeing how ancient civilizations seek contentment and how brand-spanking new ones try to buy it. Weiner is a consummate journalist, a keen observer who gleans social nuance easily and generally without judgment.

However, it’s when he steps away from his journalist voice and into the role of the memoirist that the book really comes to life. Earlier chapters are interesting, no doubt, but compared to the later parts of the book, they’re drier, as if it took him some months to settle into a less objective perspective. The purpose of the book is more geographical journey than spiritual, but considering that the subtitle is “One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World,” one would expect that the grump would be more prominent.

The writer of memoirs and travelogues is bound by the medium to spill their guts. It doesn’t have to be an agonizing confession of past sins and neuroses, but personality is the reason that a reader goes to the personal essay section rather than perusing Lonely Planet’s offerings. When Weiner returns to India, where he lived for many years, you can sense him beginning to relax. Since he doesn’t have to pry the country’s mannerisms and heartbeat out of his interviews, he can sit back and let us watch him explore. It’s clear that he loves the country, and maybe that’s what puts him more at ease than when he’s trying to dissect the dysfunction of Moldova, or the nouveau riche problems of Qatar.

It ends up being an uneven mix of culture study, memoir, and travelogue, but The Geography of Bliss makes a good go of each genre, even if it doesn’t manage to be more than one at a time. Weiner’s travels are engagingly eclectic, and his observations are keen and enlightening. While you can get to know a country by visiting certain cafés and taking in a checklist of national treasures, to see how it seeks contentment and what it considers a life well lived is far more illuminating. Weiner isn’t completely at ease in the role of cultural guide, but his keen insights are worth reading. And if he isn’t overly generous with himself, then that’s just more for him to pour into his next book.

The Geography of Bliss, 329 pages, Twelve. Available at bookstores, libraries, and online booksellers.

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