****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I am giving this book five stars because it is very enjoyable and at many times laugh-out-loud funny. But despite the five-star rating, I can't say that it is "perfect."The weaknesses: I am not easily offended, but after awhile I have to admit that Bryson's mocking of obese people became... old. We get it; the tourists were overweight. Comedy is comedy, and nothing should be off limits. But boring your readers should be off limits, and I got tired of reading descriptions of people's weight problems. I also got tired of Bryson's mean-spiritedness toward the local people he interacted with, making fun of their accents or basically ridiculing them to their face.Okay, all that said - the book is at its best when Bryson is making comedic observations about the nature of American culture or the places he is driving through. I burst out laughing so many times that my husband thought I was crazy. Having done a few road trips through the heart of America, the majority of his remarks are dead-on accurate. I wish he had spent more time in the west because that section could have used some fleshing-out. But in any case, I highly recommend this to someone interested in a laugh, American culture, or both.
