Rambling through a summer

With Bill Bryson, a lack of focus is actually an asset. He is always at his best when he is allowed to ramble in his books, moving from one topic to another, wherever his interests take him. One Summer: America 1927 (2013) is just such a book.

So much was going on in America during the summer of 1927 that Bryson is free to ramble at will, turning up fascinating stories and trivia wherever he turns. This was the summer Babe Ruth hit 60 homes runs (and Lou Gehrig almost as many), Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic, Gene Tunney beat Jack Dempsey, Henry Ford introduced the Model A, Al Capone became the most powerful man in Chicago, Walt Disney introduced Mickey Mouse to the world, silent movies reached their peak with Wings just as talkies burst upon the scene, Sacco and Vanzetti were executed and on and on.

And so Bryson wanders from flagpole sitters to the severe flooding that covered much of the Midwest in water that summer to the invention of hot dogs to flappers to Prohibition. He tells us that Babe Ruth spent his first paycheck on a bicycle. The IQ test was designed to determine stupidity, not intelligence. The Rockettes were originally called the Roxyettes after Roxy Rothafel, founder of the Roxy theaters.

There is never a dull moment reading these nearly 500 pages. It makes one wonder what someone like Bryson might someday be able to write about the wild year 2020, with the impeachment of one president, the scandal uncovered in the administration of the previous president and the virus that shut down not just the country but the entire world. Bryson himself is too close to these events, hardly objective enough to do them justice. But 90 years from now, give or take, some writer will give it a go and amaze readers with the wonder of it all. Let's hope this writer will be the equal of Bill Bryson.