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Home>Services>For Book Lovers>Book Clubs>The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
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| Story | | '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 trim and sunny place where the films of his youth were set. Instead, his search led him to Anywhere, USA; a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by lookalike people with a penchant for synthetic fibres. Travelling around thirty-eight of the lower states - united only in their mind-numbingly dreary uniformity - he discovered a continent that was doubly lost; lost to itself because blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a stranger in his own land.
The Lost Continent is a classic of travel literature - hilariously, stomach-achingly funny, yet tinged with heartache - and the book that first staked Bill Bryson's claim as the most beloved writer of his generation.
(From Transworld) Top
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| Author details | | Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He settled in England in 1977, and lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He and his family then moved to America for a few years but have now returned to the UK. His bestselling travel books include Neither Here Nor There, Notes From a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods and Down Under. He is also the author of the prizewinning A Short History of Nearly Everything. His most recent book is At Home.
(From Transworld)Top
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| Discussion Points |
| Is The Lost Continent more travel book or an indictment of the American way of life? | | Where did you go for holidays as a child? Have you ever tried to recreate or revisit family holidays? | | Bryson’s writing is very humorous. Choose a favourite passage illustrating this. | | Bryson also has a sense of wonder. Can you give examples? | | Do you think Bryson likes America? Is he happy being an American? Why, why not?
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