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The Lost Continent

The Lost Continent

by Bill Bryson

3.47 out of 5 (35 ratings)

Format:
Hardback 
Pages:
352 
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd 
Publication Date:
02 January 1999 
Category:
Travel Writing 
ISBN:
9780385258623 

Description

""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.

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Showing 1-4 out of 36 reviews. Previous | Next

  • I end up in fits of laughter every time I pick up this book. Bill's best!

    5.00 out of 5

    llandaff

  • Sometimes I read a book and think to myself "I could have written that," but I could not have done justice to small town travels the way that Bryson has. Admittedly, there are slow moments. Overall it was such a fun read and, in true Bryson tradition, I laughed out loud and forced my husband to listen excerpts as I went along.

    5.00 out of 5

    bookcaterpillar

  • This was the first of Bill Bryson's books that I read, and I think it is still his best. I find small-town American endlessly fascinating. The Shriners! Bill shows us America through his Anglophile eyes, which helps.

    5.00 out of 5

    helensdatter

  • One of my favourite books of all time - have read this 4 or 5 times now, and it always has me in stitches. Bryson's best ever book too, I think.

    5.00 out of 5

    zojo

Reviews provided by Librarything.

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