Read this for coursework so I didn’t have a choice on reading this book. If I did, I would have never read past the first chapter. It was boring and repetitive of how he’s going to another state/city.. only cool thing was when he had small anecdotes about murder x

Ha, oh America!

As much as I hesitated to read a travelogue about America while living abroad (I mean, shouldn't I be reading about my host country), my diminishing pile of books from home lead me to this humorous Bryson tale.

I've now had a couple of encounters with Bryson's writing and each time, seem to grow more and more fond of his haphazard style of not only traveling but writing as well. How many other authors dare pay tribute to their deceased housmaid in the middle of a book or drop in random facts about world happenings in irrelevant places? Now that's the type of stuff that keeps you on your toes!

As for the undying cynicism, well, what do you expect? The man left America to live in Britain of all places! I mean, come on, obviously he's going to find Friday night football and town hall meetings a bit trite!

Personally I find his accounts of each state absolutely hilarious! Bryson's omnipresent cynicism and nack for pointing out the obvious (with out regards to political correctness) bring a bit of truth to 'small town America' that is probably often lost or overlooked in any other true 'guidebook.' To say that that the author is honest about what he feels would be, well, an extreme understatement! Each trip through each state is as steroetypically perfect as is the idea of a fat white man calling a long circular drive across an entire continent with no particular destination a 'vacation.'

To find this book any less than humurous one would have to maintain a cynicism much more deeply rooted than Bryson portrays his own to be, or, perhaps, you might just have to come from one of the dozens of small towns that he makes fun of along the way!

Hot off my to-read pile. I've enjoyed the two Bryson books I've read and expect to enjoy this one too. This the correct cover for my edition, but mine is a "rescued" paperback.

So, our narrator/traveler is off on a visit to his grandparents old place and the neverending lesson: you can't go home again. That part reminded me of a great story by Alice Munro. Don't recall the title. Before he gets there he stops in Pella, Iowa, one of the many towns settled by the Dutch. The New Yorker had a recent article about Orange City, Iowa, which sounded much like Pella. VERY Dutch-American.

Down the road in middle-south America and Bryson has so far had few good words for your land and my land. Mississippi seems to be "a don't go there" kind of a place, while Alabama seems a bit better. Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri? Fuggetaboutit!

Heading north now, and visiting places he'll return to in "A Walk in the Woods," although I don't recall him mentioning it in that book. Curious ...

- Why don't trees grow well along interstate highways Bill? Because it's a crappy environment = exhaust fumes fill the air and in the northern states - like Maine - tons of salt solution is sprayed about in wintertime so all those humungous trucks don't get all wack-doodle in bad weather and block the roads(they do anyway - been there, done that).

- Bryson is looking for the fifties, but they are Gone, Baby, Gone. There are remnants and finds some but mostly they are Gone With The Wind. This is what he means by The "Lost" Continent. The land of his youth ...

- Bryson says it took him FIVE?!?! hours to drive 173 miles on an interstate from Macon to Savannah. That doesn't sound right. Three at the most, maybe, but he doesn't explain ...

Spent a lot of time with this one last night as Bryson swings back into Iowa and heads in a westerly direction in April. Plenty of time spent in Colorado so far but more down south instead of Denver-Boulder. The snarky-snark keeps rolling out, but he does pause to give praise to what he likes. Hard not to like the scenery out west. The "amen" corner coming into Buena Vista from the east is something we all remember.

- BB makes reference to the Ford "Rouge" plant in Michigan. More commonly referred to as River Rouge I think ...

- BB gives a shout out to the good and decent (white)people of Iowa, his home state. What can I say? I assume that many of these people voted for Trump, a decidedly bad(a relentless liar for one thing) and indecent person. It's VERY tempting to demonize these resentful, fearful people. BB describes a number of semi-derelict towns in Iowa and it becomes at least understandable that such economically and culturally besieged folk might make deplorable decisions. But still ... it's tough to have too much sympathy for people who make such fear-based and harmful decisions, and continue to vote for the Republican Party simply because it's the de-facto tribe of the white folks in this country. Trump(like Reagan) may be the Big White Chief, but he's been a VERY bad president. What to do? Stopping the willful denial would be a good place to start. The guy's a relentless jerk, ADMIT IT! My personal favorite among ALL his idiocies was the mocking - from a podium! - of a handicapped person. How can you vote for someone like that??????

- Meanwhile, BB himself has a bad moment when he refers to Truman Capote as "a mincing little fag" - Whaa???? In general, this and other put-downs give a picture of an immature, somewhat resentful narrator. The other BB books I've read came along later and he definitely toned down the negativity. As in the later books, BB reveals an almost willful lack of good sense at times. In this book it shows in the episode of driving his little Chevette on a dirt back road up to Cripple Creek. Dumb, dumb, dumb. And oh, BTW, a pass and a canyon aren't the same thing!

Rounding off ... BB shows proper respect for the Grand Canyon and mentions the rape of Hetch-Hetchy, a story most folks don't know about. And so, in conclusion, I conclude that this book is not as good as the two that I've read by the older, smoother, funnier and humbler Bryson. It's like a trial run for better things to come, but not so bad that it deserves a 2* rating. 2.75* rounds up to 3*.

- Ohhh GOD! Bryson's a "you see"-er too.

From all the negative reviews, I expected to cringe at the stereotyping. Since leaving Texas decades ago, I've often been teased for my drawl, which is mostly gone now unless I decide to lay it on thick, just for fun. (I finally dropped "fixin' to" but will never lose "y'all"! What's that you said? Youse guys? Ha, ha, ha, ha.)

Instead of cringing, I laughed through this whole 2.5-hour audiobook. Not quite as good as his "Thunderbolt Kid," but still worth a read or a listen.

Sadly, the more I read by Bryson, the less I like him. The stories are wonderful, and his writing is enjoyable, but it's becoming exceedingly hard to ignore the fact that he's probably an entitled git and an insufferable ass when every hundred pages or so he goes off on a rant about something innocuous, particularly considering that these aren't collected newspaper reports or something else in-the-moment; he's had time to reflect on his tirades and still decided ugly was fine.

I found it very amusing. Lines like there being a sign "We shoot to kill" as he crossed the Mississippi state line made me laugh out loud. Of course it's not true, but it sort of highlights America's love affair with the gun that we in Europe find so hard to comprehend.
As someone who lived outside the US for a number of years, he has a perspective that those who haven’t, don't; in the same way he was able to pick up on the quirks of England in "Notes from a small island" that those of us who live here don't notice.

As hilarious as when I read this book several years ago. Bill Bryson’s wit and verve comes across on every page – there is not a dull moment in this travelogue. There are many “laugh out loud” moments in this book, which can be somewhat embarrassing as I read a lot in public places – such as metros, buses, parks…

And not only laughter – Mr. Bryson can penetrate through to the lost soul of America with his sly observations – on consumerism, language, modes of travel… Not much escapes the vision of Bill Bryson. His perceptions range at different levels and he is able to turn the humour over to himself as well.

After twenty years from publication date there is still much that is valid and real in these pages - and laughter is ever so important!

This took me an absolute age. Nothing to do with Mr Bryson, but a side-effect of the virus. I was listening to this on my way to and fro work. No travel now - no listen.

I did really enjoy this, but I can imagine that Billy has to keep his head down now when travelling through some states.

Really laughed out loud on several occasions.

In which a bilious Bryson, returning to the U.S. after living in England, borrows his mom’s car (with her permission) and sets out to find the perfect American small town.

Bryson kind of loses focus of his main task along the way, but that doesn’t prevent him from slinging his jibes at 38 of the lower U.S. states.



This one’s almost as funny as the other Bryson books I’ve read, but he seems to have a stick up his behind for most of it and the sometimes nasty barbs at middle Americans lose steam fairly quickly.

A nice quota of belly laughs are found herein, but you’ll be shaking your head and saying, “What the Hell, Bill?” more often than not.

By far, the weakest of the Bill Brysons I've read. Very similar to Notes From a Small Island, but I didn't learn as much because he doesn't dwell on the historical background of some of the places he visits. In fact, I found Made in America to be a better tour of modern American history - for example, the part about suburban life and shopping malls - than this one is.

This is not my favorite Bill Bryson book. I've lived in or visited many of the places Bryson described and I think he was unnecessarily harsh. It was if he was deliberately searching for negative things to say in an attempt to be amusing. But this won't stop me from reading more of his books. When he's on his game he is magnificent. Stephen King is like this too. I run hot and cold on both of them.

I’ve decided I’m more a fan of Bryson’s later work than his early attempts. It’s been years, but as I recall, the humor in A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail and In a Sunburned Country could be classified as self-deprecating (or perhaps Katz-deprecating in the case of the former). The laughs in this book feel more mean-spirited than I expected.

Don’t get me wrong…there are very amusing excerpts, mostly compiled from Bryson’s childhood travels to destinations of his father’s choosing and visits to his grandparents’ home where he would be subjected to exotic-sounding dishes like “Frosted Flakes ‘n’ Cheez Whiz Party Nuggets”.

I’m 30 years younger than Bryson, so references to some celebrities and old television series went right over my head. There are also statements (not jokes per se) of a racial/geographical nature that I found rather offensive. (This travelogue was published in 1989 and is far from politically correct.) Reading this 32 years from its publication date also takes all the shock factor out of the quoted prices – Bryson is practically apoplectic at moments when he’s asked to pay $42 for a hotel room or $17.50 as an admission price to a historical museum. Sounds like a bargain in 2021.

Sometimes you just wake up moody, a storm front is moving in, and the day’s outlook feels predestined for bleakness. Funny, though, how some of the worst moments in a trip become those that you look at most fondly from the other side. There is very little of that positivity here but rather a lot of grumbling over the sad state of affairs in the United States, simply because Bryson expects 5-star dining from a truck-stop establishment in the desert. Vacationing, especially long-distance by vehicle, is an unpredictable endeavor. He didn’t seem particularly willing to roll with the punches and spend enough time off the highway to actually experience small-town America, which was purported to be his intention.

As it was, by the mid-way point, I was eager to get to the end of the trip, which is undeserving of a 3rd star from me. I think I’ll continue experiencing America on my own.