The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America (original 1989; edition 1999)

by Bill Bryson

Series: Bill Bryson's Travels (1)

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6,385	130	1,501	(3.66)	97
Travel. Nonfiction. HTML: 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. .… (more)

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Member:	jerhogan
Title:	The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America
Authors:	Bill Bryson
Info:	Black Swan (1999), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 349 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
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Work Information

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson (1989)

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English (125) Italian (1) Portuguese (Brazil) (1) Swedish (1) German (1) Dutch (1) All languages (130)

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Showing 1-5 of 125 (next | show all)

I generally enjoy Bryson's writing. However, rereading this book I found it a little sour.

ritaer | Feb 18, 2024 |

Wasn't as exciting or funny as A Walk in the Woods or In A Sunburned Country, but The Lost Continent was an interesting perspective to read. Bill talks about road trips with his family growing up, and as an adult, he didn't want to repeat those long hours in the car...until he decided to write this book. (

)

ohheybrian | Dec 29, 2023 |

I wanted to love this. I wanted to be cool and adore Bryson like the rest of the world. But in this book, at least, I found him to be snobbish and snarky and small minded and in a few cases downright mean. Didn't like this at all. (

)

Kim.Sasso | Aug 27, 2023 |

Fun to read.

kevindern | Apr 27, 2023 |

I had a hard time getting through this book. Maybe I was disappointed after the blurb on the cover told me it was the book Steinbeck would have written if he'd travelled with Letterman instead of Charley. Puh-leese. Bryson seems to mostly loathe his native land, and I'm not sure why he bothered to take this heartless journey. A big disappointment. (

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CarolHicksCase | Mar 12, 2023 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Bryson, Bill	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Schalekamp, Jean	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

Bill Bryson's Travels (1)

Is contained in

The Lost Continent [and] Neither Here nor There by Bill Bryson

I'm a Stranger Here Myself / Notes from a Small Island / The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson 7 Book Set (No Box): I'm a Stranger Here Myself, The Lost Continent, A Walk in the Woods, Made in America: An Informal History, Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Notes from a Small Island, and In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

▾Awards and Honors

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Ultimate Travel Library: Around the World in 80+ Books

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Canonical title

Original title

The Lost Continent: Travels in small-town America

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1989

People/Characters

Bill Bryson

Important places

Des Moines, Iowa, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

To my father

First words

I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.

Quotations

For one giddy careless moment, I was almost serene myself. It was a strange sensation, and it soon passed.

"I don't know, dear," my mother would answer mildly. My mother only ever said two things. She said, "I don't know, dear." And she said, "Can I get you a sandwich, honey?" Occasionally on our trips she would volunteer other pieces of intelligence like "Should that dashboard light be glowing like that, dear?" or "I think you hit that dog/man/blind person back there, honey," but mostly she kept quiet.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

New York magazine

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

File:LostContinent.jpg

Merle Hay Mall

▾Book descriptions

Travel. Nonfiction. HTML:

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.

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Book description

Haiku summary

he drives through the states,
acts miserable,
eating junk and talking shit.