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"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 smiling village where the movies from his youth were set. Instead he drove through a series of horrific burgs, which he renamed Smellville, Fartville, Coleslaw, Coma, and Doldrum. At best his search led him to Anywhere, USA, a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by obese and slow-witted hicks with a partiality for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost: lost to itself because he found it blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country.
In true Bryson style, in a study that manages to be witty, amusing and anecdotal as well as informative, on one of the greatest British dramatists that has ever lived, he recounts his travels during which he discusses Shakespeare and his life with expert academics, actors, directors and theatre managers, while following the Stratford route.
Mel Taylor has to deal with some strange challengeslike the inconvenience of setting off sparks when he comes within five feet of modern electronics, the result of being a time-traveling veteran of World War II. Hes doing his best to settle into a new life in a new time, but he cant escape his complicated past, no matter how much he wants to, especially after surviving an explosive confrontation among the Iowa cornfields the previous summer. Hes got home construction problems, missing cemeteries, angry neighbors, evangelical preachers, malfunctioning locks, an attacking young woman, car crashes and new acquaintances to deal with. He also has to find the strength to say his final farewells to lost friends. For too long Mels life has been complicated by secrets. And like all secrets, his have a way of bubbling to the surfaceespecially when he has the sapphire staff, an instrument of Gods will, hidden in his basement. Hes been asked to uncover the location of a weeping angel statue, and what he discovers will yield an unexpected connection to his pastand the woman he once loved. He might even reveal how he ended up in the future and what role Dr. Eunholders device played in his life.