Travels in small town America
Audiobook!
If it is Bill then you know that you are in for a thrilling ride! The comedy is polished but it hits you like a cool breeze on a warm sunny day!
The whole book is a travelogue and a pretty famous one at that!
First bill starts by saying how he practically ran away from the US to go as far as the UK in between talking about his neighbour who thought that US is the best and UK is tribal!
Then Bill would mention about his vacation or trips taken by his father with the whole family! The very big station wagon where the kids used to do naughty things and how they always used to go to small motels!
Or have bad roadside picnics! Or get into hotels with bad room and a single TV which was at the reception and currently occupied by a guest who usually had a limb or something missing! Then they would find that person more interesting that the TV which anyway would not have much going on!
So one fine day when mid life crisis hits Bill and he loses his father, he takes his mother’s old car and embarks on a road trip all over the US! This was the pre mobile time and you can feel the fun!
His stops at the ghost towns! Or the almost constant bad visitor centers! Or the monuments and famous places which are way over rated expect for the Grand Canyon which is apparently just as grand as you have heard!
The journey moves along old roads with nothing to see or towns with old people or diners with limited food! Once in a while though he would get a place where he would eat till he vomit!
All the while the journey goes in a nice pace! Your imagination and Bill’s very comic narration would make you SEE the places as if they are right in front of you!
I love Bill’s subtle humour and then the occasional obvious ones! In fact it is more funny when the place is dull!
Since I usually listen to him while on my drive to and from work; I have spent hour laughing in the car by myself! Many sections I would rewind and then laugh again!
So in summary
After living in England for years, Bryson returned to his home state of Iowa following his father’s death.
His self depreciating humour about his own town is simply hilarious! Hear or read it to believe it!
He borrowed his mother’s Chevrolet Chevette and embarks on a 13,978-mile road trip across 38 states!
The Goal was to find “Amalgam,” a mythical, idyllic small town with tree-lined streets, friendly neighbors, and a thriving local diner which he of course did not find!
The key observation was the Commercialization of America where Bryson laments the rise of strip malls, fast-food chains, and neon signs that make every American town look identical!
He contrasts the gritty reality of late-1980s small towns with his idealized memories of 1950s family road trips.
He offers sharp, often biting observations about regional eccentricities, tourist traps (like Carhenge and Elvis’s Graceland), and the habits of everyday Americans!
In between all these he tells about Mount Rushmore, Las Vegas and the unlimited Casers buffet and the gambling trap! And about his connection with sports!
If you have read his other novels then you must simply get done with this too!
You may have to spend 10 hours though! But believe me the drive would be worth it!
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