The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson Audio Book: 2 hours, 20 minutes Hardback: 314 Pages Bill Bryson is a gifted author. I like his writing a lot, however, having said that, I also have to say, the man gets pretty catty in this one. He is as cynical about America and extremely haughty about his belief that the English culture is so much better and so much smarter as was Charles Dickens on his tour of America in 1842. Bryon grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and while there are funny moments in this story of his road trip through (mostly) rural America, he spits venom with such complete disdain, I can’t imagine why he hasn’t left America for good and cut all ties. Hmmm, must be the money he makes as a writer, here, huh? I guess, his attitude is he thinks he is being comical and sometimes he is, but, most times he is just mean spirited and saying cruel things about everywhere and everyone American. He doesn’t seem to think anyone is a brilliant as he is and his writings wreak of a narcissistic disorder in that he comes across self-absorbed, overly self-important doesn’t really seem to have any empathy for others and he seems to feel that his opinions are the only ones that are worthy – uh, Mr. Bryson, perhaps you missed that adage about, “Opinions being like sphincters (I cleaned that up) – everyone has one.” He does value his English wife which is good, one should love their spouse and hold them dear, but, he always emphasizes she is English. He has since moved to England and has dual citizenship, I cannot imagine openly belittling one’s own country and culture so badly and praising another culture and country so much that they would have anything at all to do with the former. He seems to use Americans and America for fodder for his often harsh remarks, especially in this book. So, while funny at times, he is a bit abrasive in this book. He does tend to hold that attitude in the previous book I read by him, too. Poor lad, he should have come up in Oxford. J
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