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  • The Lost Continent

  • Travels In Small Town America
  • Written by: Bill Bryson
  • Narrated by: William Roberts
  • Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (34 ratings)

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The Lost Continent

Written by: Bill Bryson
Narrated by: William Roberts
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Publisher's Summary

Hardly anyone ever leaves Des Moines, Iowa. But Bill Bryson did, and after 10 years in England he decided to go home, to a foreign country.

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.

©1989 Bill Bryson (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Lost Continent

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing!

This book purports to tell of two road trips made throughout the USA by the author in the late 1980’s that, combined, touched 38 states and covered some 14 000 miles. The style is personal and witty but certainly antedates the political correctness to which today’s public is accustomed. Indeed, the author is very critical of most places seen and, it must be added, of his own family and of himself. Though this approach is certainly intended to be amusing, many may perceive it over time to become tiresome.

There are three fundamental flaws:

• Oftentimes, the circuit followed seems to be improvised on the way; contrary to what is claimed, tourist spots are not avoided as, among many others, Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, the Lincoln Memorial and Cooperstown are visited; perhaps because notetaking was not perfectly rigorous, there are holes in the narrative: for instance, the 5-hour bus trip to New York City from Pennsylvania where the car is left is described in detail but not the return.
• The context is now dated: the trip was made before smart phones existed, which means that the author frequently gets lost and that he often discovers that a given tourist site is closed for the day or overly expensive; the general observations that are made are no doubt partly obsolete as well.
• The author is always on the go and clearly exhausted with driving at many points. He does not seem to realize that the places most enjoyed on a trip are those where the most time is spent (and not necessarily the reverse).

Overall, this work will be of interest mainly for those interested in urban development and how its quality regressed in America between the author’s childhood in the 1950’s and his trip thirty years later.

1 person found this helpful

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Bit of an A-hole

I’ve read most of Mr. Brysons books years ago. And I remember them with such pleasure, but going back and listening to this book I noticed a streak of smug arrogance in his writing and views on the individual. I still love the book, just surprised that I found Bill to be a little bit of an A - hole.

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Dated and not as good as later works.

When I moved to the U.K. I had enjoyed Bill Bryson's "Notes From a Small Island". I guess it had been written about 4 years before. This made me pick up "The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America".

This book is ostensibly a travel book. He travels around 38 of the lower 48 United States visiting small towns and local tourist attractions. It was written in 1989. That is important, because some of this didn't age well.

Some humour is made from the ubiquity and lack of markings of the various back roads of which he travels. In 1989 this may have been humourous, but in the world of Google Maps, smart phones, and where even 20 year old cars had onboard GPS systems, it comes across like your great great grandfather talking about how he used to buy coke for 10 cents.

The author has a prejudice against people from the southern U.S., he brings it up a lot. He also has a big problem with fat people. He sees it as an external manifestation of their internal evil. He denigrates tourists, but he is a tourist. Overall it comes across as an American who went abroad, saw things he liked, came back, the things he liked about home had changed and none of the things he liked about away were there.

From listening to this book you can see the start of how the humour in his later books came to be, but I found a lot of it fell flat in this book. Also the narrator didn't help. The narrator's voice has a very "privileged white middle aged man" quality about it. The tone an intonation make things that may have been meant as humour, come across snide and condescending. I should make it clear at this point that I am an old white person, although 15 or so years younger than Bryson.

In this book the author laments the loss of the America from his childhood. Roadside diners and Norman Rockwell settings. He describes an United States he feels is inferior to the one in which he grew up. I did find it ironic that the U.S. he describes in his visit is also gone and people lament its passing as well. The industry's and corporations he derides for ruining the country of his youth, are now gone and middle aged people today remember their heyday as the good old days.

Overall, give this one a miss, go for some of his later works where his humour is more on point and his observations are more wry and less judgmental.

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Bill Bryson does it again!

I really enjoy Bryson's books. The humour, the tangents, the pointed but accurate observations. Nothing not to like. Satisfying and recommendable listen.

The narration by William Roberts is excellent.

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Love Bill Bryson’s writing.

Fun book! The reality of traveling through the States blows away the clouds of romantic notions. Bill has saved me so much time and money.

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Again and again

I have listened to this book about 4 times now and it never gets old.

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  • M. S. Cohen
  • 2014-08-11

Written by Bryson's evil twin

I have listened to every one of Bryson's audio books here on Audible.com.

I really like Bryson. He makes even the most mundane topics engrossing.

And it's not that he completely hates America. A Short Walk where he talks about hiking the Appalacian Trail is wonderful and very positive.

But in this early book his nastiness on American is not just palpable, it's suffocating.

In addition, instead of Bryson's warm, folksy reading that I have come to enjoy, William Roberts's reading makes even warm thoughts on America come out snide and snarky.

I pushed myself to listen to the whole thing so I would feel entitled to write a review.

But if I could, I would have rewound the tape to erase it from my brain.

28 people found this helpful

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  • Rachel
  • 2014-08-10

There are better Bill Bryson audiobooks

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Have the older, kinder Bill Bryson go back in time and take this journey. While some of his commentary was both hilarious and heartwarming, like many other reviewers, I was startled at how mean-spirited this book could be in comparison to Bryson's later works. He is comparatively positive about Iowa and the Midwest, as he waxes nostalgic about his childhood in Des Moines (and as an Iowan myself, I both confirm his assessment of our state and breathe a sigh of relief that his memories were good ones!) His commentary on other regions, particularly the South and Appalachia, was gratingly negative. Perhaps he was still in the process of finding his comedic voice, but I often found myself sympathizing with the unassuming and often kind people he was lampooning. The reader choice did not help matters any.

What other book might you compare The Lost Continent to and why?

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe.

What didn’t you like about William Roberts’s performance?

This is Bryson at his most...curmudgeonly...and William Roberts was perhaps not the best narrator for this task. My first encounter with this book was of the dead trees variety; I noticed the negative tone then, but Roberts seemed to draw it out in the worst way, making the narrator seem even more smug, arrogant and rude, when Bryson's voice tends to be more self-deprecating and light-hearted. The advantage of this version is that it is unabridged; perhaps I was better off with my old beaten-up paperback, read in my head with Bryson's less irritating voice.

Was The Lost Continent worth the listening time?

If you are a Bryson fan, perhaps try to find a version that he reads himself.

On the whole, I would still recommend the book, but not as an introduction to Bill Bryson if you haven't read any of his stuff before. He's less of a jerk in his later books, so if you've read Neither Here nor There, A Walk in the Woods, or Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, you'll approach The Lost Continent in a more forgiving mood. This is his first major book, and he's still honing his voice.

It's also worth listening to simply because you can see the connections between his travels and topics that he covers in his later works, for instance, his near-visit to the Biltmore Mansion vis-a-vis his lengthy treatment of the Vanderbilt family in At Home: A History of Private Life. Don't expect that level of research in this book--this is primarily a travelogue--but it is interesting to get a glimpse of the context behind some of his more recent nonfiction books.

25 people found this helpful

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  • shipit
  • 2014-02-13

Not one of my favorites

This is one of Bryson's earliest books, published in the late 80's. As such, it lacks much of the humor that balances his snarkiness, leaving a book that seems to have been written by a curmudgeon. Americans have a lot of issues, but I found the book mean spirited. I also couldn't figure why he chose to travel during the cold, rainy season when some of the prettiest parts of the west weren't accessible. Maybe he wanted a better comparison with life in England.

20 people found this helpful

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  • freedom
  • 2015-09-04

Bill Bryson bitches his way from coast to coast!

I barely finished this. I love Bill Bryson, and maybe his own narration would have saved this for me, but the incessant whining and kvetching about the state of the union read so emphatically was trying. Maybe this was novel and clever during the Regan Administration (when this was written), but it's tiresome now. Not nearly as informative as his other works, either. Too bad I saved it as the last of his books to listen to. He's better on foreign soil, in his own voice.

12 people found this helpful

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  • Lou Ann Dickson
  • 2014-05-04

Bill's sophmoric, condescending journey

As a longtime devotee of Bill Bryson, I was hugely disappointed in this book. Mr. Bryson somehow left his sense of humor on the dock at Liverpool and returned to America expecting to be disappointed, disillused and dismayed. He was not disappointed. His journey throughout the heartland, south and west of the United States is related in condescending, humorless, and unforgiving fashion that leaves the reader wondering why he did not catch the next plane back to the UK. Predictably nothing he finds approaches the quality, charm, beauty or intelligence of the UK or Europe for that matter. It is an unhappy journey amongst people he finds it impossible to respect and through a land barren of charm or beauty. Worst of all, Mr. Bryson does not narrate this but it is done by Mr. Roberts who seems to turn even the slightest bit of humor into a long, cold look down his long English nose. I couldn't wait to finish this audiobok and would not recommend it to anyone not looking to bash the US at every turn.

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Cathy Wagner
  • 2011-03-15

Bill Bryson does America like no-one else!

Bill Bryson's ability to sum up a character in a few well-chosen words, combined with his insight into the American psyche, make this a highly enjoyable and easy-to-listen-to book. I loved it - from beginning to end.

8 people found this helpful

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  • Thomas
  • 2013-01-31

Count's stop laughing superbly read .

What made the experience of listening to The Lost Continent the most enjoyable?

So life like with a lots of humor

What other book might you compare The Lost Continent to and why?

Down under by Bill Bryson (as well)

What about William Roberts’s performance did you like?

He is a great reader by any standard.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Kasandra
  • 2009-01-09

Every bit as good

As all the others he's released. Insightful and funny.

7 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Jason
  • 2012-05-26

I had no idea who he was.

My girlfriend suggested I listen to this and I had my doubts, but I figured I had little to lose as I am always looking for a good book to listen to. I listened to this while doing a 1000km drive through my home province and a lot of what was being said really sank in and made me laugh. It's a dated book but very good.

5 people found this helpful

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  • indyemmett
  • 2018-10-14

One of Bryson's better books.

The author and narrator were great. Much credit to both who made this book very enjoyable on a roadtrip myself.

2 people found this helpful