内容简介

'I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to'

And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England, he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of trim and sunny place where the films of his youth were set.

Instead, his search led him to Anywhere, USA; a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by lookalike people with a penchant for synthetic fibres. Travelling around thirty-eight of the lower states - united only in their mind-numbingly dreary uniformity - he discovered a continent that was doubly lost; lost to itself because blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a stranger in his own land.

The Lost Continent is a classic of travel literature - hilariously, stomach-achingly funny, yet tinged with heartache - and the book that first staked Bill Bryson's claim as the most beloved writer of his generation.

作者简介

William McGuire "Bill" Bryson, OBE, FRS was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He settled in England in 1977, and worked in journalism until he became a full time writer. He lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He and his family then moved to New Hampshire in America for a few years, but they have now returned to live in the UK.

In Th...

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精彩摘录

事实上大部分都又老又胖，一走动大腿上的肉就会晃来晃去。看起来就像是观赏一坨移动的O形果冻似的。

——引自章节：第二十四章/267

Thisisthegreat,seductivethingaboutAmerica-thepeoplealwaysgetwhattheywant,rightnow,whetheritisgoodforthemornot.Thewholeoftheglobaleconomyisbasedonsupplyingthecravingsoftwopercentoftheworld'spopulation.IfAmericanssuddenlystoppedindulgingthemselves,orrunningoutofclosetspace,theworldwouldfallapart.Ifyouaskme,that'scrazy.

——引自章节：Chapter13