Shamefully, I have never read this before.
Needless to say, it’s a fascinating insight into a strange American era.  The book is filled with tension between the sudden possibilities of life in the postwar United States – the trajectory hinted at in the Great Gatsby followed through to its logical conclusion where cars, sex, alcohol, divorce, [...]

We were stuck in traffic going through the Hoover Dam for nearly two hours – the Nevada police were operating some sort of mysterious checkpoint on the way into the state which slowed traffic to a crawl. Behind us Arizona was covered with scattered thunderstorms. As the sun set the stationary traffic was [...]

As a foreigner, one could be forgiven for having very low expectations of American food.  Mysteriously, what has been selected for export as representative of the USA tends to be fairly vile combinations of grease, beef, sugary bread and fake cheese.  Many, many pre-made US foods contain ridiculously huge quantities of high fructose corn syrup, [...]

Things I like about the USA:
- the food
- everything is a robot
- it feels like the centre of the world
- the beer is surprisingly good
- the sheer variety of people, places, weather, culture
- new york
- chicago deep dish pizza
- everything I ate in new orleans
- you can get The Onion for free as a [...]