by Bill Bryson
First published 1989
After a decade living in England, Bill Bryson returns to his native Iowa with a mission. He sets out to drive across America in search of Amalgam, an idealized small town that exists only in his memory and the movies of his youth. What he discovers instead is a nation transformed into something he barely recognizes. Traveling through thirty-eight states, Bryson encounters an endless procession of strip malls, chain restaurants, and cookie-cutter developments that have erased the distinctive character he remembered. The people seem as uniform as their surroundings, dressed in synthetic fabrics and living synthetic lives. His journey becomes a meditation on what America has lost in its rush toward modernization. Bryson finds himself a stranger in his own country, mourning both the environmental damage and cultural homogenization that have reshaped the landscape of his childhood. This travel memoir captures the disappointment of homecoming with Bryson's signature wit and observational humor.
Genres: essays, travel, humor, american, memoir, cultural-studies
Vibes: melancholic, nostalgic, observational, satirical, witty
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, lost-nostalgia, road-trip
Setting: United States, Small-town America, Iowa
Period: 20th-century
299 pages · Paperback · William Morrow Paperbacks