Bill Bryon’s The Lost Continent is an unusual travel book. It is witty, almost dangerously funny, gives little account of the famous “sights” in the country he travels through, and, most oddly of all, is largely intended for the natives of that land. Returning to America after having lived for a decade in England, Bryson drives across the country searching for a mythical perfect small town which would encapsulate all he loves the nation. His general and articulate disappointment gives the book its drive as he rails against strip malls, idiots and commercialisation with all the verve of an anti-globalisation campaigner, but with much more accuracy and humour.
In fact the book’s explosively funny style, and Bryson’s reputation as one of the best modern humorists in English, run the risk of obscuring the points he is trying to make. The opening line, “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” is a quotation worthy to rank with the oftest-cited bits of Moby Dick and Casablanca. And it is difficult, indeed pointless, to try and describe the derangingly hilarious effect Bryson’s prose style can have on an unsuspecting reader. But Bryson is a satirist as well as a comedian. The constant jokes, and the obvious affection for America which comes out in his prose, tend to gloss over for many readers the fact that Bryson is furious about what has happened to his homeland. It is not simply a subjective dislike for slow people and spandex clothing, either – he cites statistics about education, poverty and health which really give one pause for thought. Or should, if the next sentence wasn’t just about guaranteed to set one giggling inanely.
LikeThe Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bryson’s most recent book, The Lost Continent could be accused of mythologising America, of creating a glowing nostalgic myth of security, innocence and untroubled family life. But this would involve misunderstanding Bryson, and paying too much attention to this tone, rather than the little barbs about racism, DDT and nuclear war which are casually dropped into the end of amusing sequences. Bryson is well aware that America was never a perfect haven, and he harps on this image merely to show how far the myth is from the reality either of America past or America present. (And for that matter, he seems to have the gravest doubts about America future...)
The Lost Continent is an extremely clever and subtle piece of writing, which uses the author’s unstoppable wit to get over a blend of affection, concern and frustration. And Bryson can hardly be blamed if we don’t always read him as carefully as he deserves.
Jem Bloomfield - Jem Bloomfield was educated at the universities of Oxford and Exeter, and is currently working on a PhD on Webster's revenge tragedy "The ...
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