Take Comfort, Things Are The Same, A Book Review of One Summer By Bill Bryson
Famous Silent Film Actress Carla Bow, featured in Bill Bryson’s book One Summer
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Without a doubt, I would recommend One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson. It’s a good read I can just about guarantee you’ll enjoy. This Bryson book was our latest #reallivesbookclub selection, which I considered a hit. Bryson, whom I’ve read before (in books such as Thunderbolt Kid, Notes From A Small Island, and A Walk In the Woods) once again pulls together a ton of information in an engaging manner that is both insightful and spirited. Even though it felt like a lot of stories to take in at times, I often found I was vigorously turning the pages to read more. And that is no small compliment since I am a miserably slow reader!
I learned so much about the history of key figures in this pivotal year, too, which included the story of Lindbergh’s flight in the Spirit of St. Louis across the ocean (a plane made mostly of cloth, mind you). Then there was the state of baseball and the antics of Babe Ruth, as well as the drama of the mafia fueled by Prohibition, and even the mythic rise of the boxer Jack Dempsey.
My biggest takeaway, however—and, I’d argue, an optimistic observation as well—is that humanity remains much the same today as it was in that era. This might sound pessimistic, but hear me out as I make a pitch for how very true that is and why it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
OH, THE HUMANITY!
Throughout One Summer I was struck by the massive crowds that gathered for significant events. Everything from Lindbergh’s landing in Paris to his subsequent visits all over the United States on his tour afterword resulted in huge gatherings of people.
The public couldn’t seem to get enough of his story, in particular, and nearly mobbed him on several occasions per Bryson’s telling. People would press and come close to killing one another just to catch a glimpse of Lindbergh or snatch a piece of memorabilia off his plane.
Mobs of people are an ominous thing in any context. The lack of reason when a crushing throng moves in yielded terror in the reading. But considering the times when news only traveled by newspaper and limited radio, to be present for milestone historical events must have carried the average person away (almost literally).
Another interesting (but not surprising) note was how taken people were with less-newsworthy stories, such as one detailing a philandering and murderous Ruth Snyder who, along with her lover Judd Gray, killed Ruth’s husband Albert. The tabloids heightened the details and lured in the hungry public with less than accurate accounts of the ongoing trial. We do like salacious stories!
POLITICIANS ARE PEOPLE, TOO
Politicians then are what they seem to remain today—a wide representation of the good, bad and unfortunate of our species. For every one elected who goes into politics wide-eyed and ready to change the course for their constituents, there are those who are corrupted and greedy, too.
I knew practically nothing about President Warren Harding or his Vice President Calvin Coolidge before reading this book, but both proved stranger than I could have ever have imagined, which is probably in keeping with a lot of politicians today. It takes an interesting personality and dynamic to go into politics, no doubt.
For example, that Harding was known to take the occasional public leak on the cuff was the least of his controversial issues. Soon after Harding’s unexpected death, his reputation was kyboshed by several scandals that surfaced as well as his ongoing affair. And the fact that Coolidge was “better” becomes a sad circumstance as his oddities are repeatedly described throughout the book.
It’s weird how we hold our politicians in this dichotomy as either saviors or villains. Which is true? The constant is that we long for heroes and are willing to create them regardless of the underlying details.
WE LONG TO BELIEVE
We seem to have a shared desire to believe in the magic of those who accomplish great things. It turns out Babe Ruth was an unapologetic glutenous womanizer in his off-time, for instance, but one hell of a baseball player. The public was willing to overlook his flaws because of his talent. Perhaps the fact that he was such a character only added to his iconic stature.
As Bryson points out, it was Lindbergh’s accomplishment of flying across the ocean that harnessed people’s passion to raise him up as hero. He tapped into the public’s imagination that anything was possible and that the future was bright. We all long to share vicariously in human excellence and achievement.
AN EPIC YEAR INDEED
It was one tremendous summer in 1927! Here were a few major reasons why:
We lagged behind Europe in aviation during the 1920s, nearly abandoning the technology after WWI. But Lindbergh changed that.
Babe Ruth surpassed his own record this year.
It’s hard to imagine how different our collection of great American literature would be today if not for the publisher Knopf.
Movies were changed by sound and became the most consumed art form.
Bryson does manage to eloquently cram the stories of so many in the pages of One Summer that it’s not hard to understand why he chose this particular year for the subject of his book.
Maybe the most disconcerting, and sometimes overwhelming thing, was the volume of details and people weaved into his telling of events. As the book comes to a close, Bryson helps the reader by quickly tidying up the story arch of lives covered throughout. The patterns go something like this:
Person is very successful —>succeeds more and lives to a nice ripe old age averaging late 70s.
Person is successful —>then person fails miserably and dies a popper and an alcoholic.
Person fails miserably pretty much from the beginning—>then dies a popper and alcoholic.
With so many lives summarized toward the end of the book, I felt a bit macabre about our general trajectory in life. And I would also note that, as we highlight the disparities of African American history in our collective, those members of the community were not present in One Summer.
THE PENDULUM SWINGS
Just as I began to feel a bit apocalyptic about the state of humanity, I rushed through the final pages to see how things turn out for Ruth, Dempsey and Tunney, Vanzetti and Sacco, not to mention the reception to the musical Show Boat, and even the true inventor of television named Philo Farnsworth. I bet these are stories that will have you intrigued to read on as well.
The positive takeaway about humans is that we keep going—in jubilation and despair. Humanity keeps moving on and some things get better just a bit. And the pendulum about our opinions regarding it all shifts constantly.
I’m reminded of a favorite quote, one that hangs in my office and reads, “In the end everything will be okay. And if its not okay, its not the end.” I think there is a kind of comfort in knowing we are traveling on a continuum of interesting times always in which the summer of 1927 is one glorious and storied example.
Postscript: One comfort is a clean space. If you need help getting going on organizing your home check out Get Organized Gal’s courses for support.
I used her course to organize my office, and it is in pretty good shape these days. Success in one space has lead to cleaning channels to other rooms and photos as well. Check out he courses here.
Sherry and Alexandra Borzo together in Lima, Peru
Sherry is the founder of Storied Gifts a personal publishing service of family and company histories. She and her team help clients curate and craft their stories into books. When not writing or interviewing, Sherry spends loads of time with her grandchildren and lives in Des Moines, Iowa.
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