Bill Bryson’s memoir on growing up in Des Moines, Iowa in the 1950s is a humorous account of a special time and place, where a kid wears an old football sweater displaying a thunderbolt and thinks himself a superhero.
The Abingdon Lite at Night group read Bill Bryson’s memoir and had mixed feelings about it. There are some very humorous parts to the book and the authors take on being a small boy is very funny. There were comments from the group regarding the accuracy of some of Bryson’s dates. One reader had checked on a couple of things and found that the author may have got his facts wrong. He also felt that the book was rather contrived. That Bryson may have needed to write a book but this wasn’t his best work. In fact those of us who had read previous books by this author were disappointed. It was not as funny and did not flow as well as previous works. Overall, however, if you give Bryson the benefit of the doubt and are not a stickler for facts, the book is entertaining and certainly shows how life has changed since the Fifties. In fact the best line in the book, and the saddest, is right at the end “What a wonderful world it was. We won’t see its like again, I’m afraid.”
We do recommend you read this author. His book, in a Sunburned Country, about Australia, is hysterical & just magical if you listen to the author reading it himself on CD. He is an excellent raconteur & you feel he is sitting right next to you telling you his stories. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, is also a good read. Two other titles featuring travels in America are, The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America, & I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years. For any Anglophiles, Notes From a Small Island gives the reader wonderful insight into British culture and foibles and is another very funny book. Bryson is an excellent storyteller and gives the reader a real feel for the places he visits whether in the present or the past.
See Bill’s website at http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/ for a short biography and details of some of his books.
Some Praise for Bryson’s book from his website.
“Bill Bryson’s laugh-out-loud pilgrimage through his Fifties childhood in heartland America is a national treasure. It’s full of insights, wit, and wicked adolescent fantasies.”
—Tom Brokaw
“Bryson is unparalleled in his ability to cut a culture off at the knees in a way that is so humorous and so affectionate that those being ridiculed are laughing too hard to take offense.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“A cross between de Tocqueville and Dave Barry, Bryson writes about…America in a way that’s both trenchantly observant and pound-on-the-floor, snort-root-beer-out-of-your-nose funny.”
—San Franciso Examiner
“Bill Bryson could write an essay about dryer lint or fever reducers and still make us laugh out loud.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“Bryson is…great company…a lumbering, droll, neatnik intellectual who comes off as equal parts Garrison Keillor, Michael Kinsley, and…Dave Barry.”
—New York Times Book Review
From Publishers Weekly
Though billed as memoir, Bryson’s follow-up to A Short History of Nearly Everything can only be considered one in the broadest sense. Sure, it’s filled with Bryson’s recollections of his Des Moines, Iowa, childhood. But it’s also a clear foray into Jean Shepherd territory, where nostalgia for one’s youth is suffused with comic hyperbole: “All sneakers in the 1950s had over seven dozen lace holes,” we’re told; though all the toys were crummy, it didn’t matter because boys had plenty of fun throwing lit matches at each other; and mimeograph paper smelled wonderful. The titular Thunderbolt Kid is little more than a recurring gag, a self-image Bryson invokes to lash out at the “morons” that plague every child’s existence. At other times, he offers a glib pop history of the decade, which works fine when discussing teen culture or the Cold War but falls flat when trying to rope in the Civil Rights movement. And sometimes he just wants to reminisce about his favorite TV shows or the Dick and Jane books. The book is held together by sheer force of personality—but when you’ve got a personality as big as Bryson’s, sometimes that’s enough. (Oct. 17)
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The other day I read in one of my news alerts that a terrific book has just been adapted to make a movie. The Jane Austen Book Club, directed by Robin Swicord and starring Maria Bello, opened September 21. This would be an intriguing choice for a book club, if only because the theme is a book club! Six readers start a club to discuss the works of Jane Austen only to discover that their own lives resemble modern versions of her novels.
In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant
Friday, September 21st, 2007The cover, featuring the cool and alluring gaze of the semi-clad and reclining Venus of Urbino by Titian signals very clearly what the book is about – a 16th century courtesan – and also by reproducing a real painting, places it among other titles such as Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.
The plot is exciting and grabs your attention at once when Fiametta Bianchini, a beautiful, intelligent, and talented courtesan in the eternal city of Rome is forced to flee from the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor who are sacking the city. She flees with her major-domo, the dwarf Bucino, in whose disillusioned and bitter voice the story is narrated. Having between them swallowed the best jewels from Fiametta’s casket, they head for Venice, where Fiametta’s mother lives. They arrive in Venice after many harrowing adventures which have left them nearly penniless, to discover all is not well in Fiametta’s mother’s house. The pair of them set out to create a reputation for Fiametta which will enable her to set up a salon for gentlemen of power and culture such as she had had in Rome. As Bucino travels the Venetian canals and alleys, the reader gets a vivid picture of the 16th century city. Bucino has a hard task preserving Fiametta’s reputation and even her life, from violence, despair, and simply from starvation. His efforts are made more difficult by Fiametta’s relationship with a blind healer who insinuates herself into their lives and brings them into potential danger from the religious establishment. Fiametta’s path is smoothed to a degree by her patrons among the art intelligensia of Venice. Fiametta numbers among her friends the painter Titian, and the writer Aretino. Readers of Tracy Chavalier and Susan Vreeland will love this glimpse into the art world as they will appreciate this story of an independent and intelligent woman overcoming adversity.
Tags: 16th century, Aretino, book comment, book discussion, book reviews, courtesans, In the Company of the Courtesan, Rome, Sarah Dunant, Titian, Venice
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