The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-town America
“I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn’t hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called...
show more
“I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.”
And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn’t hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of smiling village where the movies from his youth were set. Instead he drove through a series of horrific burgs, which he renamed Smellville, Fartville, Coleslaw, Coma, and Doldrum. At best his search led him to Anywhere, USA, a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by obese and slow-witted hicks with a partiality for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost: lost to itself because he found it blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country.
show less
Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780552998086 (0552998087)
Publish date: 1999-01-02
Publisher: Black Swan
Pages no: 379
Edition language: English
I love Bill Bryson's travel memoirs, and I consider A Walk in the Woods to be one of the best books I have ever read. However, I have to admit...I found A Lost Continent to be slightly disappointing. I think that the problem was three fold. The first problem was that this book is dated. It was pu...
This wouldn't be the first travelogue that I have read, and in fact it would hardly be the first of its kind (but then considering that the Book of Ecclesiastes says 'there is nothing new under the sun' this is not surprising). In fact, in the ancient and early modern times this is how travelogues w...
I must say that I absolutely love, love, love Bryson`s "A Walk in the Woods" and have wanted to read more from him for quite some time. So.... I`m not to say disappointed, but not as entertained as I hoped. I guess, the main problem is that Bryson travels through small town America alone and there i...
Well, I suppose it was entertaining, which is why I didn't rate it lower. For those reviewers who think the only reason people feel a bit defensive is because we are arrogant Americans, well...I'm pretty sure I would be offended for any country that Mr. Bryson writes about. According to him, there...
Excellent, it makes both the history and language interesting. Bryson goes on a trip following the traces of English language and history of America. Someone would say- why, what for and how can it be interesting? Well, Bill Bryson can make each topic amusing, funny and compelling. As i'm not really...