The Road to Little Dribbling – Bill Bryson

Twenty years since ‘Notes from a Small Island’ was published Bill Bryson takes time, and a trip, to re-appraise the state of his adopted nation, and finds like many of his generation, it is slipping slowly away from his understanding.

The notional geographical peg for his wildly meandering route is a straight line that is the longest possible within mainland Britain, running from Bognor Regis on the south coast to Cape Wrath in the far north of Scotland.  Fear not those of you off this corridor for he still visits a place close to you.

His observations are inevitably shot with perspicacity, wit and laugh out loud humour.  From sitting his British citizenship test at Eastleigh to his bemused arrival at Cape Wrath lighthouse he both celebrates and pokes fun at the British way of life.

So far, so Bryson; but as is often the case the acquisition a bus pass leads to an onset of grumpiness, which surfaces often in this volume.  He rails at many changes in society – the decline of the high street, the ubiquity yet uselessness of computers, the intrusive noisiness of folk on mobile phones – that rankle, before shrugging them off and continuing his search for the positive.

As well as humour and grumpiness is a rich vein of informative storytelling as he roots out little known or under-reported facts, such as the ‘system’ for numbering roads, and sheds light on local people and places whose position in history has undeservedly been neglected.

Funny, wise, acerbic, informative, and above all entertaining.

A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan

“Time’s a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?” So says Bennie Salazar to his old mate Scotty in the final chapter of the book, finally unlocking the mystifying title. By then both have them have been pushed around quite a lot, as have another dozen or so characters, who pop in and out of each other’s lives as snippets of their stories emerge in no chronological order.

Meeting them at various stages of their life from wild youth to staid middle age (though some don’t make it that far) illustrates how people change, adapt, or in some cases stay just the same in the face of events, circumstances or experience. Egan even has a dip into the near future with some astute projections that are already recognisable in 2018 some eight years since publication.

Each chapter’s narrative style reflects its main protagonist; quite a feat given their variety in age, gender and personality. And each provides an entertaining, well written piece for the reader to try to slot into the jigsaw that is the havoc wreaked by the Goon Squad.

An entertaining, invigorating and memorable read.

Review of 2017

The fortnightly reviews were successfully maintained throughout 2017, which meant 26 books reviewed, of generally high standard. Only eight authors had been previously read, and authors new to me included five encountered on the Bookpacking journey commenced in the year (South America has been reached).

From the books read seven are picked out to be particularly recommended: four good serious reads (though each contains some humour); a humorous novel (that has serious things to say); a young adult novel (of import to old adults too); and a non-fiction book for anyone interested in maths, the Simpsons or preferably both. Thumbnail sketches are given below for each (to see the full review go to the bracketed month).

Books for serious readers:

Skippy Dies – Paul Murray (Mar) – A sprawling roller-coaster of a book relating the pulsating events of one term at Seabrook College for Boys; humour, angst and tragedy affect students and staff alike and though Skippy dies, life is re-affirmed.

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain (May) – Bravo Platoon’s ‘victory tour’ following its televised fire-fight in Iraq culminates at Dallas Cowboys’ thanksgiving game where contradictory forces can no longer be contained.

The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood (Jul) – Three ladies who lunch in Ottawa each try to deal, in their own way, with the return from the dead of a common friend whose funeral they had attended and each, for their own reasons, celebrated.

The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen (Sep) – A forensic examination of grown-up family relationships in which each member has a turn centre stage before their stories and viewpoints coalesce in a fine denouement.

Humour:

A Man Called Ove – Fredrik Backman (Oct) – A grumpy widower’s attempts to join his beloved wife initially make him a figure of fun, but as the back story emerges and his social horizons widen, there is more to Ove than meets the eye.

Nonfiction:

The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets – Simon Singh (Feb) – Many of the scriptwriters for the Simpsons TV series are maths grads and often sneak titbits of mathematical significance into the show, as explained here in entertaining fashion.