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Title details for The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson - Available

The Lost Continent

by Bill Bryson
Kerry Shale
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

In an ageing Chevrolet Chevette, he drove nearly 14,000 miles through 38 states to compile this hilarious and perceptive state-of-the-nation report on small-town America.
From the Deep South to the Wild West, from Elvis' birthplace through to Custer's Last Stand, Bryson
visits places he re-named Dullard, Coma, and Doldrum (so the residents don't sue or come after him with baseball bats). But his hopes of finding the American dream end in a nightmare of greed, ignorance, and pollution. This is a wickedly witty and savagely funny assessment of a country lost to itself, and to him.
Travel through small-town America with Kerry Shale's popular BBC Radio 4 reading of Bill Bryson's comic travelogue.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 1, 2004

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781405697569
      • File size: 66660 KB
      • Duration: 02:18:52

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Iowa native Bryson returns from several years of residence in the U.K. and takes a long driving trip in the U.S. to see what he's been missing. Not much apparently; he turns his rapier wit on everything and everyone he runs across. Kerry Shale picks up beautifully on Bryson's caffeinated style. He reads billboards! He describes tacky towns! He treats us to tales of family trips with his parsimonious father! He voices glum room clerks and grumpy gas station attendants! An all-you-can-eat adventure in Amish country is a comic vignette in itself. The pace is rapid, but Shale makes sure you don't miss a word, so come along for the ride. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 1, 1989
      Bryson, a freelance journalist, succumbed to nostalgia upon returning home to Iowa after living for 20 years in England: he decided to relive the dreary vacation car trips of his American childhood. Starting out at his mother's house in Des Moines, he motors through 38 states over the course of two months, looking for the quintessential American small town--something he never encountered as a boy, and certainly doesn't discover now, as he tours superhighways, motels, shopping malls, fast-food joints and tourist traps. And, like a bored, bemused minor tagging along after adults, he trashes almost everything he sees, including the Smithsonian Museum and the trees in Sequoia National Park. Some of Bryson's comments are hilarious--if you enjoy the nonstop whining wisecracks of a 36-year-old kid. First serial to Cond e Nast Traveler; BOMC alternate.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 12, 1990
      Journalist Bryson decided to relive the dreary vacation car trips of his American childhood. Starting out at his mother's house in Des Moines, Iowa, he motors through 38 states over the course of two months, looking for the quintessential American small town. ``Some of Bryson's comments are hilarious--if you enjoy the nonstop whining wisecracks of a 36-year-old kid,'' determined PW.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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