The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson and I have completed our tour of small-town America. I never actually left my chair for the trip, but Mr. Bryson visited 38 states and drove 13, 978 miles. He is an observant guide and I learned things about American history and American places that I never knew before. And, it was fun reading his take on places I was familiar with.

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America was written about the journey he took when he was thirty-five. Mr. Bryson, a long-time resident of England, returned to his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa and set out to find the perfect American small town - one portrayed in the movies and television shows of his youth. Think "Leave It to Beaver" and "Ozzie and Harriet."

Here is what he was searching for:
...a trim and sunny little city with a tree-lined Main Street full of friendly merchants ("Good morning, Mrs. Smith!") and a courthouse square, and wooded neighborhoods where fine houses slumbered beneath graceful arms. There was always a paperboy on a bike slinging paper onto front porches, and a genial old fart in a white apron sweeping the sidewalk in front of his drugstore... 

He almost succeeds. But of course there is no "perfect" small town. Many have all but disappeared or have become a haven for big-box stores, gas stations, and tacky tourist shops. 

Mr. Bryson headed East in the fall of 1986 and the following spring headed West. I followed him - using my trusty atlas - town by town, interstate by back road, across the deserts and rivers, up and down the mountains, around the lakes and through the forests that made up his journey. 

Along the way he eats some really bad food, stays in a few nasty hotels, and meets some pretty unfriendly people. But then again, in some places he has just the opposite experiences. 

No matter what he encounters - good or bad - only he can tell the tale. I had great intentions of writing down some of the many funny lines from the book to share with you. But, I was always so curious to find out what incredible place he was going to see next and how he was going to describe it that I didn't slow down long enough to capture them.

Sorry. You will just have to read the book and discover them for yourself.

Touring America with Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson begins his journey in
The Lost Continent
from Des Moines, Iowa

I am doing a little armchair traveling with Bill Bryson as he road trips in The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America (1989). Mr. Bryson is one funny guy and I so enjoyed reading about his tour of his adopted England (Notes From a Small Island) that I can hardly wait to see what he thinks of his native land.

Mr. Bryson grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, the start of this trip, and fondly recalls the many somewhat excruciating family vacations led by his father. So in his 35th year, shortly after his father's death, he borrows his mom's aging Chevrolet Chevette and with folded and marked maps in hand heads out to find the perfect American small town portrayed so often on television and movie sets of his youth. 

He is searching for the small towns inhabited by Ozzie and Harriet, Wally and Beaver Cleaver, and the Hardy Boy in their mystery books. Towns that feature tree-lined streets, friendly merchants who know everyone by name, and paper boys slinging papers onto front porches.

I am actually following his route in my trusty atlas as he travels from Des Moines to Winfield, Iowa to see what has become of his grandparents' farm (it's not good), to Hannibal, Missouri and Mark Twain's home, and then on to New Salem, Illinois for a visit to what was the home of a young Abraham Lincoln.

He heads south from the Land of Lincoln and right now he has just left Oxford, Mississippi without ever finding Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner. (I can sympathize. When I was in Oxford last April, I had to phone the curator from the car and he gave me turn by turn directions to the driveway.)

He has not disclosed his entire route around the country but I am ready to go where he goes. Mr. Bryson can pack more useful information, biting humor, and absurdities into one paragraph than anyone I know. I am just sorry that I am in my reading chair and not on the front seat next to him as he takes on Small Town America.

Absolutely my last book purchases for 2012

Oh goody. My Powell's order arrived today. I promise these are the last books I am buying in 2012 but I am such a sucker for free shipping and these four are all 'previously owned' and I am happy to have them.

As I am late in discovering the very funny author Bill Bryson (here is My fan letter to Mr. Bryson), I went on a bit of a tear and ordered three of his books: a hardcover edition of At Home and paperback editions of The Lost Continent (who better to take a road trip of small towns in America than with Mr. Bryson) and Neither Here Nor There about his adventures in Europe.

I am so in the mood to do some armchair traveling.

The final book in the order is Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson. Yes, that Shirley Jackson of the creepy short story "The Lottery," The Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

This book will not keep me up at night unless it is because I am laughing. I am not sure where I read about it, but it is really a series of short-stories-turned-into-a-novel. It is one of those books about domestic chaos -  based on her own experiences raising four children in a big, rambling house - that can be so charming and hilarious. Think Diary of a Provincial Lady and anything written by Erma Bombeck.

I am all set for a little light reading to wind up the year.