Bill Bryson · 1989 · road

Bill Bryson's 1989 travelogue, his first, a wry and often scathing drive around small-town America in his mother's Chevy. Setting out from his Iowa hometown in search of the perfect, mythical small town he calls Amalgam, Bryson loops through the South, New England, the Great Plains and the desert West across some thirty-eight states, finding the real America by turns charming, absurd, and quietly vanishing.

1. 1
   Des Moines

   Bryson sets out from his Iowa hometown in his mother's Chevy to find the perfect small town.

2. 2
   The Deep South

   South through the small towns of the heartland and the Deep South.

3. 3
   New England

   Up the East Coast to the white-steepled villages of New England.

4. 4
   The Great Plains

   Then west across the endless plains.

5. 5
   The Grand Canyon

   Through the deserts and canyons of the West.

6. 6
   The Pacific Coast

   Out to the Pacific.

7. 7
   Des Moines

   And the long road home to Iowa.