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A review by alreadyemily
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America by Bill Bryson
2.0
It's helpful to know this book wasn't written for an American audience. While other books have this noted in the front, I either missed it or it wasn't there. Personally, I'd rate it 1 star, but I'm willing to provide an extra star because it's not really laughing with me but at me, so I suppose it's natural I don't care for it much. I enjoyed the very beginning and most of much smaller second section, The West. Everything in between....
Fat jokes, fat jokes, and more fat jokes. Or just casual weight shaming. Or accent shaming, or education shaming. Or the N-word oh but just speculatively quoting someone so as to demonstrate it's not Bill who is racist... But then also just casual racism from Bill anyway. And homophobic slurs (again not Bill speaking but speaking for someone else... I'm still not okay with it). Oh and let's not forget the abelist shaming of Playboy for featuring a paraplegic. Really?
You can make all kinds of jokes, especially if you're humble and take a few shots at yourself to show it's all in good fun. I'm not saying one needs to be PC all the time. But sometimes things can go too far or be too numerous and it all just becomes tiresome and tacky.
Fat jokes, fat jokes, and more fat jokes. Or just casual weight shaming. Or accent shaming, or education shaming. Or the N-word oh but just speculatively quoting someone so as to demonstrate it's not Bill who is racist... But then also just casual racism from Bill anyway. And homophobic slurs (again not Bill speaking but speaking for someone else... I'm still not okay with it). Oh and let's not forget the abelist shaming of Playboy for featuring a paraplegic. Really?
You can make all kinds of jokes, especially if you're humble and take a few shots at yourself to show it's all in good fun. I'm not saying one needs to be PC all the time. But sometimes things can go too far or be too numerous and it all just becomes tiresome and tacky.