Aficionados of American culture and Anglophiles alike can rejoice: Across the Pond (W.W. Norton, $14.95) is more than “an Englishman’s view of America.” Terry Eagleton, one of the most influential literary critics of recent decades, is the ideal guide to everything idiosyncratic about our beloved country, especially those things the natives never bother to notice. What makes American-Britiish relations so fascinating is just how close we are to each other—and yet how very far. Taking this distance as a starting point, Eagleton is a passionate observer, a wit, and a Brit who’s determined to get at the roots of the oddities, niceties, and just slightly off-ness of American life (at least, as his compatriots see it) . Now, if only he could explain Benedict Cumberbatch…. Perhaps in his next book.
