Rating: 
Summary: Ugh. I so wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't .
Review: After reading A Walk In the Woods (during which I laughed so hard I cried more than once), I was expecting a similar journey around Small Town America. What I got instead, was a mean-spirited, spiteful, disappointing ride around 14,000 miles of America. Bill, can you honestly expect me to believe that in 14,000 miles you didn't find one town, that could make you happy? I often hoped the tone of the book would change, but it never really did. I did enjoy your re-telling of your travels with your father. He sounds like a much more interesting traveller than you have become.
I'm glad I read Walk in the Woods first...no one would have been able to convince me to pick it up had I read this book first.
If you are looking for a true book about Small Town America I would suggest Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck or my perennial favorite, Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but not his best.
Review: Bryson's one of my favorite travel writers. Hilarious. A Walk in the Woods is my favorite of his. This one is about his travels around small-town America, which isn't as interesting for someone who knows what small-town America is like. And I thought Bryson's sarcasm was a little snotty and mean in places, but pretty enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: funny has hell
Review: I can't tell how much I laughed while reading this book. I discovered this book by accident in a B&N store, just after reading 2 pages I had to get it. Don't listen to all the -ve reviews here. Obviously these people couldn't laugh at themselves. Trust me I lived in a small town in Illinois and I know what it is like. I do agree that sometimes he is little too frank, but thats his style and thats the beauty of the book. He not only makes fun of small town America, but he laughs at himself. This is the first book I have read by him, and I am already reading his other book on Europe. Just give this rib-tickler a read within an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Just like so many previous reviewers,
Review: I didn't like this book at all. I've been many of the places that Bryson visits in the book. I grew up in the same part of the country that he comes from. I hoped that this book would be a funny and light-hearted look at a side of America that I call home. While it is somewhat humorous, I found that his constant sarcasm and cynisism negated most of the laughs.
Plain and simple, he pokes fun at America as a foreigner. I was hoping for a book that read like a buddy joking with me. Instead, reading this book is like listening to a girlfriend pointing out all that is wrong with me.
Rating:
Summary: Agree with rockgeek56
Review: I got this book after greatly enjoying "A Walk in the Woods." I had been so interested with that book I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail!
This book was just the opposite. Bryson provides a disappointing description of his travels around the United States, picking on most of the places he visits by highlighting their lowlights.
Rating:
Summary: Another mean-spirited book
Review: I had hoped for a humorous look at America but was stunned to find caustic remarks instead. This reminds me Bill Kaufmann's book Dispatches from the Muck Dog Gazette. There is no affection for small towns here. For some reason, the authors of both books find it amusing to bash small towns instead of embracing them for what they are. I'm barely three chapters into the book and plan on tossing it. I will not buy another Bill Bryson book again.
Rating: 
Summary: laugh you way through this one
Review: I loved this book. He does whine, he does offend but nonetheless he's terriby funny. His observations are uniquely his own with a mix of American brash and British dry wit. We should all laugh more. Be forewarned on the whining part and have a good laugh.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but entertaining
Review: I should state up front that I am a huge fan of Bryson's and usually snatch up his books the moment they hit the bookstores. I re-read this one recently and had a few thoughts to share.Compared to his books about England and Europe, this one falls a little flat. There's a lot more personal observation and anecdote and less history. The constant references to his father (cheap, bad driver, obsessed with historical trivia) grow a little wearing. One can't help wondering what the rest of the family thinks of all this. As a veteran of long road trips across North America myself, I can sympathize with the boredom he feels. If it weren't for the changing geography, it would be hard to tell where you are sometimes; everywhere you see the same tourist junk, fast food and strip malls. Bryson is rightly outraged at the disappearance of local "character" and the cheesiness of mass culture. I think many of the negative reviews come from people outraged to find their own hometowns, states or regions slighted, which is understandable but does colour their opinion too much, I think. Try to set aside the outrage and ask where Bryson is coming from. There's one thing Bryson consistently does in his books which I find very tiresome: pointing out women he finds fat or disgusting, enumerating their faults, and even extrapolating on their character flaws, personality defects, etc. Bill, I'm a big fan, but you're no poster boy for sculpted abs yourself. ;) Even if you were, it wouldn't give this observations any validity. It's a cheap, nasty, adolescent thing to do and frankly I expect better. (OK, off my soapbox now) Overall, a book that locates the tackier, more disappointing sides of American life in a very amusing fashion. Let's not try to pretend that everything about America is always wonderful, pretty or important.
Rating:
Summary: Bryson's best: a fast, informative and entertaining read
Review: I spent this last summer reading the entire collection of Bryson's books and after much thought and energy give THE LOST CONTINENT: TRAVELS IN SMALL TOWN AMERICA the prize for being his finest work to date.
As a writer, Bryson combines the genres of travelouge with personal memoir and in LOST CONTINENT achieves that unique voice that is all his. Always able to deftly combine erudite scholarship with personal insight and extremely salty humour, Bryson leads his audience through a personal journey of not only the American landscape but also his spititual topography as well.
As he journeys across small town America- in a search for "Anytown USA" (an amalgam of all those MGM/Capraesque bygone hamlets), he wistfully searches to reclaim all the memories of his father. His father, a sportswriter, apparently led the Bryson brood on a multitude of spendthrift odysseys. As Bryson retraces the journeys of his childhood he relives so many rich memories that alternate between the comical and the honestly nostalgic without resorting to cheap sentimentality.
Bryson constantly reveals little known histories and local color all the while criticizing and celebrating the subtle nuances that make up the American landscape. He takes shots at the obvious- strip malls, over commericalization and cheap tourist traps in ways that both raise the reader's ire and appeals to the sense of whimsy as well.
Probably Bryson's greatest trick lies in his ability to inspire his reader to undertake similar journeys.
A great read.
Rating:
Summary: Not even one star
Review: I was out in Philadelphia - a very fun and interesting city (if you ignore this book)- when I read this book. What an incredible disappointment. "Razor sharp wit" is too kind of a description of Bryson's wit. Bryson is down right mean in this book. This is a man who made a conscious decision not to live in the United States who returns to supposedly find his "roots" in Iowa. Hey, keep your eyes open. Bryson was more intent on beating it as fast as he could across America to get a book to print for his editors. Although I do agree, the Midwest can be "heavy" even from the perspective of this home-grown Illini, the Midwest also has the most genuinely nice people, pork as a main food group, the best county fairs, little league and every rib fest known to mankind. He seems to have overlooked the POSITIVE aspects of Americans by only reaching for the surface. A Walk in the Woods is a much more enjoyable and funny read than this book. Obviously, putting one foot in front of the other makes one look closer at one's surroundings. Don't waste your time with this one.
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