Bright Young Things discussion

Welcome to our June 2014 fiction group read of....




One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson


Thanks to Judy for nominating it....

Judy wrote: "I've been waiting to nominate this until it comes out in paperback - that happens in the UK during May and in the US at the start of June.

I think that as we have just had a couple of great reads about exiled writers in 1920s Paris, it would be very interesting to find out what life in America was like at the time, and Bill Bryson is such a readable writer - his book on Shakespeare was great."

Thanks to everyone who nominated books and who voted in the June 2014 poll.


Here's some information about One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson:

Britain's favourite writer of narrative non-fiction Bill Bryson travels back in time to a forgotten summer when America came of age, took centre stage, and, in five eventful months, changed the world for ever.

In the summer of 1927, America had a booming stock market, a president who worked just four hours a day (and slept much of the rest of the time), a semi-crazed sculptor with a mad plan to carve four giant heads into an inaccessible mountain called Rushmore, a devastating flood of the Mississippi, a sensational murder trial, and a youthful aviator named Charles Lindbergh who started the summer wholly unknown and finished it as the most famous man on earth. (So famous that Minnesota considered renaming itself after him.)

It was the summer that saw the birth of talking pictures, the invention of television, the peak of Al Capone's reign of terror, the horrifying bombing of a school in Michigan by a madman, the ill-conceived decision that led to the Great Depression, the thrillingly improbable return to greatness of a wheezing, over-the-hill baseball player named Babe Ruth, and an almost impossible amount more.

In this hugely entertaining book, Bill Bryson spins a story of brawling adventure, reckless optimism and delirious energy, with a cast of unforgettable and eccentric characters, with trademark brio, wit and authority.

Here's to another interesting and insightful BYT non-fiction discussion.

Just started this. So far, I'm loving it. Crime, tabloids, prohibition, Charles Lindbergh and more, all in the first chapter. Woo hoo!

I, too, am in the beginning, although I have had this since Christmas.

Looks good, so far.

Thanks for the introduction to this one, Nigeyb, and glad to hear you are both enjoying it, Barbara and Jan. So am I - I'm about halfway through and have been jotting down some notes as I go, so here are the first few...

The introduction, and the discussion of aviation in the early chapters and later in the book, are fascinating. I knew that flying was very dangerous in those early years, but hadn't realised quite *how* dangerous! As a fan of older film melodramas, I've watched quite a few late 1920s and 1930s films about ex-First World War pilots working as stunt fliers or air mail pilots, and at least one of the pilots tends to get killed in each film.

Reading Bryson's account of the reality during those years, you realise that it is no exaggeration. He also shows why so many American pilots had to try to eke out a living as stunt fliers, crop dusters etc, since there were no commercial airlines operating in the US.

Bryson's style of writing is wonderful, very sharp, witty and often sarcastic, with lines that stop you in your tracks and ask to be reread. He also has an almost Dickensian talent for including unlikely but telling details, like the elaborate meal that René Fonck, one of the pilots setting off on a doomed flight across the Atlantic insisted on packing, to celebrate his arrival -

"He even packed a dinner of terrapin, turkey and duck to be prepared and eaten in celebration after reaching Paris, as if France could not be counted on to feed them."

I tried reading this months ago when it first came out, but couldn't get into it. I will probably give it another try here soon (have a couple things I'd like to finish) because it seems up my alley.

Hope you enjoy it on the second attempt, Bronwyn.

Here's my second snippet from my notes...

It's very interesting to read about the Ruth Snyder court case which provided the real-life inspiration for the James M. Cain novel Double Indemnity, and so indirectly for the Billy Wilder film we'll be discussing in July, which is one of the first and most famous films noir.

Bryson says it's difficult to see why the court case proved so fascinating, but I think you can see why from the number of films on similar themes - it's the idea of the femme fatale driving a man to crime which got so many people hooked on the story. I hadn't previously realised that the same case also inspired Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, but, once Bryson says it, I can see it! (I've only seen the movies but must investigate the books.)

There was also a similar British court case which was very famous over here, the trial of Alma Rattenbury and her teenage lover, which inspired Terence Rattigan's play Cause Celebre - Helen Mirren and David Morrissey starred in a film version of that one.

I'm really enjoying your updates Judy.


Judy wrote: "t's very interesting to read about the Ruth Snyder court case which provided the real-life inspiration for the James M. Cain novel Double Indemnity, and so indirectly for the Billy Wilder film we'll be discussing in July, which is one of the first and most famous films noir."

Wonderful. I love it when different selections link together.

Judy wrote: "....the femme fatale driving a man to crime...."

That's at the very heart of much film noir

Thanks for all the cinematic references Judy. I thought both film versions of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" were wonderful, and I look forward to watching "Double Indemnity" when we discuss in July.

A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion by Ron Hansen is a more recent novel on the "sash weight murder" as it was known in the press.

I just got to this chapter and it struck a familiar chord and remembered that I had this book going on Kindle. It's not bad. I'm about 35% into it.

Nigeyb, I've only seen the older version of 'Postman', starring Lana Turner and John Garfield, but must catch up with the remake.

Thanks for the tip on the novel, Jan, I've just followed the link to the description and it sounds good - I haven't read anything by Hansen but now want to! I see he wrote The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - I've only seen the film of that, which was excellent, and with such a great title!

Judy wrote: "...must catch up with the remake."


It contains one of the most memorable (and controversial) scenes in cinema (featuring Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson). Please post your thoughts when you get round to watching it.

A few more thoughts jotted down as I go along... The portrayal of Herbert Hoover is startling - the way he seems to have been so efficient, and yet without human compassion for the people he saved. He also surely showed the way forward for many other humanitarians turned successful politicians - Bryson shows how determined he was to get press coverage for every good news story!

I will admit at times I've started to get bogged down in all the detail about baseball and Babe Ruth. The account of his childhood is interesting and moving, but, like most Brits, I know nothing about baseball, have never seen a match and haven't got a clue about the rules, so I have found it hard to work up much interest for pages and pages about the sport!

Having said that, I have enjoyed odd little anecdotes like the bizarre way that the hot dog was developed as a snack for people attending matches (surprising to hear that it was a British expat who invented it!).

Bryson does explain some baseball terms, but assumes that readers have a lot more knowledge of the sport than I have, for one - I had to keep Googling to discover what phrases like "stealing second base" meant, and found a useful website which explains this kind of thing while keeping it fairly basic.

http://www.howbaseballworks.com/Runni...

I suppose Bryson had a difficult balance to strike here, because American readers would find it a bit weird and unnecessary if he kept explaining the basics of the sport, but Brits like me would find it useful.

Changing my tune here - later on the baseball does become more interesting even to someone as ignorant about it as me, with the pen portraits of the Yankees team of 1927 being particularly fascinating - many of them were over 30, one member of the team was actually dying of a heart condition, and yet they still had a fantastic season.

Ah, Murderers Row. I can't wait to get to the baseball section. It really sounds as though the Iowa in Bryson is coming out, despite spending so much time in England.

For more on the flood, see Rising Tide by John M. Barry. Again, another book I've started and haven't finished. But between the book and shows I've seen on PBS there was kind of an elitism about who should be helped. Let's help the wealthy. But sharecroppers or African-Americans? I think they stranded them on an island or something. I recommend this book, despite still reading it.

I've just had a "look inside" the John M. Barry book, Jan, and it looks very interesting, so thanks for the recommendation.

I had given it to my sister as a present (hard to give gifts to people who have polar opposite views) and decided I liked it so I also gave it to myself. I was particularly interested in the discussion on the Eads Bridge since that is the one I usually take across the Mississippi River to St. Louis.

One thing that struck me about this book is that it's almost entirely about men, except for the fairly brief section about Ruth Snyder and some snippets about other women, such as speakeasy queen Texas Guinan, Warren Harding's mistress Nan Britton and film star Clara Bow.

All the detailed accounts are about men - I suppose there was more research material available about very famous figures like politicians and aviators, and the long sections about baseball and boxing were always bound to have a male focus. But it's a pity women don't get a bit more of a look-in - I'm sure a lot more could be said about Texas Guinan or Clara Bow.

Maybe that's part of why I didn't stick with I before, Judy. I wasn't interested in planes really, and all the big names on the flyleaf were men. :/ Around the same time I read Flappers, which is all women and definitely more my style.

I have picked this back up and have been enjoying it this time, but yes, a lot of men.

A quick Amazon search does show there to be several biographies on each of these women.

Another he could have gone in to more (assuming he doesn't as I'm still on Charles Lindbergh) is Aimee Semple McPherson. So far it has mentioned her name once or twice - and I see by a review of the index that she gets two listings. Although her disappearance and trial took place in 1926, so she was a year off the target year.

Bronwyn, do you mean Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation by Judith Mackrell? I noticed this in a bookshop the other day and thought it looked interesting - after 'One Summer' and 'The Love-charm of Bombs' I'm keen to read more history books which focus on a group of people as these do.

Glad you are enjoying the Bryson book second time around, anyway. I'm fascinated by early aviation, so that was a plus for me, but, even so, I did find that I kept getting all the different pilots and journeys mixed up and having to flip to and fro to remember who they all were and where they were going!

Jan, he only briefly mentions Aimee Semple McPherson - I was also wondering if there would be more about her, but sadly no.

As noted, I think 1927 is past Aimee's prime years. She didn't die until 1944.

He could have gone into Grace Cooldige, the First Lady at the time. I have Grace Coolidge and Her Era: The Story of a President's Wife. I think she'd had her own career until he became president and then she had to take kind of a back seat. (This book is one I haven't gotten to yet)

Judy, yes that's the one. I really enjoyed it. Some really interesting women. :)

Grace Coolidge would have been neat to include. I watched the First Ladies CSPAN had last year and almost every episode was excellent.

I don't know a whole lot about McPherson (isn't Mrs. Melrose Ape in Vile Bodies supposed to be off her?), so that would've been another interesting inclusion. Too bad she's off the year scope.

I think she's the basis for the evangelist in Elmer Gantry.

McPherson is also supposed to have been the inspiration for an early Frank Capra film where Barbara Stanwyck plays a phoney evangelist, 'The Miracle Woman' from 1931 - a fantastic performance by Stanwyck!

I know very little about Grace Coolidge - there are a few mentions of her in the book but Bryson doesn't say much about her.

A few more thoughts... This book's sarcastic portrait of Henry Ford makes compelling reading. It seems astonishing how he could have combined brilliance as a car mechanic with such amazing ignorance of most of the rest of the world, as shown in the libel case where he tried to prove he wasn't ignorant, and ended up proving the opposite! Also interesting to learn that the "any colour you like as long as it's black" rule only applied for a few years. I was laughing out loud at the boring article titles Bryson picks out from the magazine Ford owned, where he shamelessly interfered with the editorial content.

Of course, the anti-Semitism of some of the other articles was anything but funny, and Bryson covers this well - amazing that Ford was apparently surprised when he found that Jewish acquaintances were offended by the magazine's appalling editorial line. I have read about Ford's anti-Semitism and the fact that he was admired by Hitler somewhere before, but can't remember what book that was in now.

The most astonishing Ford-related section is the account of Fordlandia, the mini-USA he tried to set up in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil - he never actually visited it himself and the whole thing was a disaster. I'd never heard of Fordlandia before this, but would like to know more - there is one photo included, and I found an interesting website with some more pictures of the area.

http://gizmodo.com/on-henry-fords-150...

There is also a book telling the whole sorry story, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin. Sounds intriguing... have you read that one, Jan?

My dad has Fordlandia; I keep meaning to borrow it... It'll be interesting to read the parts about Ford (I'm in June now and they're back talking about Lindbergh if I remember correctly); I work at a place that Ford started and so it's always just about how awesome he is; I've read bits about him and Nazis before (American Axis - it includes Lindbergh too), but not much.

This book is definitely picking up for me, and I'm enjoying it despite not really caring for any of the topics so far (I don't really care about baseball either...).

Glad you are enjoying the book, Bronwyn - I also found myself enjoying it even when it was a section about a subject I'm not that interested in, like baseball, just because of the way Bill Bryson writes.

If you do read Fordlandia, I'd be interested to hear what you think. Sounds as if it would be a very different view from Ford than the one you get at work.

Bryson does discuss Lindbergh's Nazi sympathies, but only late on in the book as I don't think this side of him was apparent in 1927 - it came as quite a surprise to me, after Lindbergh had seemed quite sympathetic for most of the book!

I collected the book from the library a few days ago, but only started it today.
The Prologue gives a brief history of aviation and is interesting, although I'm not sure the baseball focus will be. (I might speed read those parts.)

I think I may have heard about Fordlandia but I haven't read the book about it.

Hard to see something actually worse than Pullman - Pullman's company town in Illinois. If you got a promotion you got an upgrade in house; if you got a demotion you got a worse house. And the people at the bottom had some pretty lousy housing. All this on the outskirts of Chicago. Had labor riots in the time of Eugene Debs and Clarence Darrow.

Val, hope you enjoy it! I also found the prologue interesting, and didn't take in all the baseball!

Jan, I'd never heard of Pullman - sounds like the subject for another interesting book. I did find a website with a brief account and some pictures:

http://www.chicagohs.org/history/pull...

Does anyone else feel that this whole book cries out for a lot more illustrations?

I think it would be great to see it presented like Bryson's Shakespeare: The World as a Stage, which has loads of paintings, photos etc throughout in the edition I've got. However, as 'One Summer' is much longer, if it had a lot of photos it would be even more enormous, so I suppose that was a reason against!

As it is, I've found myself doing quite a bit of searching online to find photos of what is being described.

I'm also wondering which other Bryson books others would recommend? I've only read the Shakespeare one, which was great, this and Notes from a Small Island. I didn't really like that one at the time, because I felt he spent too much time sitting in cafes, but I don't think I'd warmed to his style as much as I have now, so I might like it a lot more if I give it another try.

I read Bryson's book At Home a couple of years ago and really liked it.

Judy wrote: "Val, hope you enjoy it! I also found the prologue interesting, and didn't take in all the baseball!

Jan, I'd never heard of Pullman - sounds like the subject for another interesting book. I did f..."

It is not really within our period as it happened in the 1890s. I recently started a book about Pullman, Pullman: An Experiment in Industrial Order and Community Planning, 1880-1930 by Stanley Buder. I bought it some time ago at a used book sale but have only recently started it. A few years ago a friend from high school wrote a play about Pullman and I think it was produced locally, probably by Victory Gardens, his old theater group.

Nice to see the Chicago History Society (now Chicago History Museum).

George Pullman did do some good things. He helped raise the city (downtown) after the Chicago Fire in 1871. It now sits on the ashes of old.

Judy wrote: "Does anyone else feel that this whole book cries out for a lot more illustrations?

I think it would be great to see it presented like Bryson's Shakespeare: The World as a Stage, whi..."

It has about 10 pages of photos.

I really enjoyed The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America where he comes back to the US and travels around.

I go to North Carolina fairly often and usually listen to A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. I find him very entertaining.

There were quite a lot of model towns and villages built during the C19th, mainly by industrialists to house their workers. In the UK the standard of housing in them was generally quite high compared to the average, but they gave the employers a level of control over their employees' private lives which would not be acceptable now.

Of Bryson's books I've read the Shakespeare one and Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe. I have quite a few of his other ones, but haven't read them yet.

The Pullman town sounds interesting. I'll have to look it up better when I have more time.

His commentary is very different in this book to his generally complementary or indulgent one in Notes from a Small Island. So far he has been scathing about the press, the forces of law and order, politicians (I'm guessing that he is not a Republican, but surely they were not all lazy or crooked) and the US air infrastructure; I have only got to page 79.

I'm thinking he wasn't very complimentary in The Lost Continent. I'm thinking that possibly a true through America, after an extended stay away, can be a shock to the system. Which is why people either love this book or hate it.

Last night I was reading the section on Herbert Hoover. Somehow I never saw him as being called "Bert". I know he often went fishing and had a camp on the Rapidan at Shenandoah National Park. They have a half-day tour that takes people down to it. I almost took it last time I was there. But they only had two tickets left and there were three of us. Maybe I'll get back there again sometime and can take it. I don't know if he achieved any joy there but it seemed to be a respite from Washington. But otherwise he was pretty dour.

I just finished this. I did enjoy it despite a lot of it being things I don't really care about. It was really interesting overall. I really enjoyed the parts on Ford and Fordlandia (he's a lot kookier than they tell us at work, lol), as well as on the movies. Surprisingly I enjoyed the parts about the home run "battle" and all that; I've seen baseball games (my grandmother was a lifelong Tigers fan, and I grew up with the Tigers last World Series being right before I was born and we have a ball aimed by them all) but never really cared for it, but this was pretty interesting.

Oh and we have a soybean lab building right at the public entrance to work, which I never really understood why, but now I know. Who knew Henry Ford was so into soybeans? He'd probably be amazed at all the soy products these days. :)

Barbara, Jan and Bronwyn, thanks for the suggestions of further titles by Bryson - all those you have mentioned sound very interesting, so I'm spoilt for choice now!

This is the last of the notes I jotted down while reading the book. One section of this book that I was really looking forward to was the account of the making of 'Wings', the great silent epic of the First World War. It was directed by William A. Wellman, who went on to make other pictures including 'The Public Enemy', which shot James Cagney to stardom, and the original version of 'A Star Is Born'. I've been a fan of Wellman for several years and am trying to see as many of his films as possible - but it hadn't struck me that he was a surprise choice to direct 'Wings' and a relative unknown at that time.

Wellman certainly did a fantastic job, and Bryson shows here how he used his knowledge as a wartime pilot to give the film its stamp of authenticity. He also gives a feeling of how magnetic Clara Bow is to watch on screen with his description of her acting - I saw a TV documentary about her about a year ago which showed just how amazing her career was.

I have noticed a couple of inaccuracies in this section, though - one maybe somewhat minor point is that Wellman didn't fly with Lafayette Escadrille, but with the lesser-known Lafayette Flying Corps. Another is the claim that Clara Bow met Gary Cooper on the set of Wings. Not so, they had already appeared briefly together in 'It', where she got him another small part as a newspaper reporter. They had also starred together in another film, released in April 1927, the melodrama 'Children of Divorce', directed by Frank Lloyd and reworked by Josef von Sternberg before release, which I was lucky enough to see at the BFI some years back.

I realise that I'm only bothered about these details because I love films from this period (though I'm no expert on them!), but it makes me wonder how many similar errors there might be in other sections where I don't know anything about the subject matter.

Anyway, it was very interesting to read the section about Hollywood, the last silents and the arrival of the talkies. I was amazed to hear that Keaton's 'Steamboat Bill Junior' flopped at the box office, because it is such a great classic. I've nominated 'Wings' as the film for the group to discuss in August, but I'd also love to discuss 'Steamboat Bill Junior', which is another of the nominations.

Jan C wrote: "I'm thinking he wasn't very complimentary in The Lost Continent. I'm thinking that possibly a true through America, after an extended stay away, can be a shock to the system."
Yes that could be true, although I have not read The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America. I thought that perhaps he considered that there were a lot of things wrong with the USA back then which are not applicable now, he does point out a lot of changes which have happened since then.

Judy wrote: "This is the last of the notes I jotted down while reading the book. One section of this book that I was really looking forward to was the account of the making of 'Wings', the great silent epic of ..."

One of my favorites of Wellman's movies is The Ox-Bow Incident.

As for other errors Bryson made--I noticed early on that he called Newfoundland a province of Canada. It is now, but was not in 1927. It didn't become a province until 1949. Petty and I wasn't going to mention it, but now that other factual errors have been mentioned, it makes me wonder how many others there are. Still, this is a book of popular history, not an academic tome so I'm willing to let it slide.

I think there were a few minor errors or misstatements about Lindbergh, but I only know that because I have been readingA. Scott Berg's Lindbergh. He is basically summarizing some of the information there. So there is room for interpretation.

There is a little bit about publishing near the end of the book. Many of the authors published by A. Knopf are ones I have read and enjoyed and I still buy quite a few books from the Random House group (they are still very good for books in translation). I have no intention whatsoever to read any books about racial purity and do not really care if the ones I do want to read would make a maiden blush. So, three cheers for Knopf and the other decadent Jewish publishers.

I did skip very quickly through the baseball and boxing bits. It's not that I have anything against baseball, 1927 sounds like a very exciting season to watch, but reading about sport is very dull compared to watching it. (I am having to avoid a lot of football pundits at the moment.)

I liked the book; parts of it were very interesting.

I'm about 100 pages into this. Excited to get into the silents-talkies portion because that is my favorite!

In the Babe Ruth section now and all I can think is how much my dad would love reading about it, because he could either a) learn something new or b) correct statements bill Bryson has made (my dad is a know it all). Either way i hope I can convince my dad who no longer reads to read at least that section about the old American past time. I forget other countries aren't familiar with the sport!

It is odd that some sports have spread around the world and some have not. From the little baseball I have seen, it looks like a good spectator sport.

I tried looking for footage of Babe Ruth, but could not find any of him playing, just some rare, recently discovered footage of him sitting in a dugout, standing up and scratching his arse. There were film cameras while he was still playing, but perhaps it was too difficult to set them up to cover a game.

Val wrote: "It is odd that some sports have spread around the world and some have not."


And the greatest of them all starts the biggest global tournament of them all this very day.

Brazil v Croatia, in a few hours, kicks off a month of the beautiful game.

Joy is unconfined.

Jan C wrote: "One of my favorites of Wellman's movies is The Ox-Bow Incident. "

Must agree, that is a great film - it gets so much into a short running time, and Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews are both fantastic.

I also love two other Westerns he made, 'Yellow Sky' and 'Track of the Cat' and loads of early 1930s dramas - and the list goes on!

Nigeyb wrote: "Val wrote: "It is odd that some sports have spread around the world and some have not."


And the greatest of them all starts the biggest global tournament of them all this very day.

Brazil v Croa..."

Sorry, soccer is another game that leaves me cold. We played it at school and have probably watched 5-10 games, at most. Chicago Fire has had their championships but they've never been that popular on TV and I am not even sure where they play.