The Lost Continent Travels in Small Town America by Bill Bryson
The Lost Continent—Travels In Small Town America by Bill Bryson
April 17,2018
Pages 1-225
The first part, in eastern America, his writing feature was showed explicitly through his words. The style is so strong that in my view other authors of travel notes may follow his style unconsciously. I think it can be divided into 2 parts: British humor and American humor.
In British humors, he use his intelligence and complex ridicule. British humor always contains lots of detail description and far extension of his mind. For instance, when they were having dinner at the restaurant on the side of the street, for showing us how dirty the tableware is, he even start from the egg on the fork to the imagination of the long life of a louse and its painful death.
As for American humor, it’s direct and exaggerating, sometimes it can be nonsense. An example here is when he described the women in Lowa, he said if you married one slender woman, there would be a time bomb inside her. You didn’t know when she would expand into a dangerous giant, just like an autoinflation whose valve was switched on.
Anyway, his travel note is attractive and infectious, it is not very logical but imaginary and far-extented, it’s just some little chat in our daily life so it resonates. The point I admire is after far extension of mind, he can bring thoughts back to the theme immediately. For me, after writing 2 lines of words I just can’t remember what I really want to say, and his style arouses my interest.
The Lost Continent—Travels In Small Town America by Bill Bryson
April 28,2018
Pages 225-320
I was wondering why the book is called “The Lost Continent”, maybe I can understand a little bit after reading it. The atmosphere is always sorrowful while he uses funny jokes to illustrate his family members and the time they’ve been together. I can imagine he tells these humorous stories, smiling, but it is as if he is going to cry in next second. He is in the same place but the little childish boy, his father and grandparents are not here anymore. Not only his childhood but also himself is lost in this continent he used to be familiar with. I guess it’s more painful to tell all these things playfully.