BOOK REVIEWS
Courtesy of Beaverdale Books
Review by Owana McLester-Greenfield
‘At Home: A Short History of Private Life’
By Bill Bryson
Doubleday
10/5/2010
$28.95
497 pp
History buffs, trivia fans and the out-and-out curious will delight in Bill Bryson’s “At Home: A Short History of Private Life.”
An interest in his own home — an 1851 former rectory in a sedate English village — prompted the Des Moines native to create this examination of household life during the last 150 years. As stated, his intention was to “write a history of the world without leaving home.” Acting as tour guide and teacher, Bryson conducts readers through his sprawling Victorian home, spouting absorbing historical facts as he ambles along. Drawing room, scullery, dressing room, library — every area illustrates the author’s thesis that “houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.”
As you move with Bryson from room to room, readers learn about the origin of the spice trade, the introduction of fuse boxes, the evolution of inexpensive books and the modernization of toilets. You’ll learn that fashionable men once wore six-inch spike heels, Thomas Jefferson grew 23 different types of peas and how for decades, ice was America’s second-largest crop. Also learn about buttons, burial grounds, Beau Brummel and bat guano. In fact, readers learn a great deal in “At Home: A Short History of Private Life.”
The tour through Bill Bryson’s home is a tour through decades of domestic life. The author is a likable, lively, loquacious host, easily envisioned in tweed coat and carpet slippers. Readers will be charmed by his house and fascinated by his history lessons. CV
