The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

I really wanted to like this book - the premise of reliving old family vacations while also searching for the quintessential small town is so nostalgic. Bill Bryson is also an entertaining and detailed writer - or at least that was my perspective having previously read a couple of his books about “everything” and “home life.” The Lost Continent starts off promising: the author leaves his childhood home town and follows the well-worn roads to his grandparent's town, and so begins his journey. In this part of the book, called “East,” he mostly sticks to what is promised in the introduction - offering up assessments of small towns and a bit of humor on the drudgery of life on the road. He tries to walk around towns and give a feel for life there - hitting up a restaurant and bar before retiring to a hotel room that is either awful or fantastic. There are quite a few laugh-out-loud moments in this part of the book. In the second half of the book, “West,” he seems to have forgotten the point of the exercise. The story becomes a series of complaints about weather, roads, and national parks. Most western towns are “small,” but they seem to be ignored in favor of decrying dreary drives and lack of food service. It really could have been a good book - I'm disappointed.