At Home: A Short History of Private Life | C

Picture the following scenario: You've just sat down to dinner, taken a sip of the hot soup in front of you and discovered it's bland. What do you do? You'd probably reach for the salt and pepper shakers, the traditional dining staples. But how did those two, as opposed to any other pairing of spices, become the standard table centerpiece?

"Whatever happens in the world — whatever is discovered or created or bitterly fought over — eventually ends up, in one way or another, in your house." It was with this thesis in mind that Bill Bryson, a non-fiction author best known for his humorous books on travel, language and science, set out to discover how domestic life as we know it evolved. In his latest book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Bryson takes the reader on a house tour (quite literally) and examines each room's characteristic features, showing how so-called "ordinary" domestic fixtures like salt and pepper shakers have some not-so-ordinary origins. The bath, for example, now a private feature of the bathroom, was once the central meeting place for the Romans, where literally thousands would bath together as a daily pastime. Bryson also covers less room-specific topics, such as the origin of the mousetrap, as he passes one on the way through his study.

Based on his previous works, such as In a Sunburned Country, it is easy to expect Bryson will approach this novel concept in an enlightening and entertaining way. But this isn't the case with At Home. Bryson's usual wit is almost completely absent throughout the book's 512 pages. Humor is a large component of his unique voice, and while it is not a required feature, Bryson's writing style is unoriginal in its absence. Facts are often disjointedly linked and it can be hard to tell how they relate back to the original topic. Additionally the title is misleading, implying a study of how history has shaped the private lives of all peoples when the book only deals with domestic life in England.

There is a lot to learn in At Home and Bryson has clearly done his research. But as the book's organization and development are weak, his plan to "write a history of the world without leaving home" sounds more lazy than original in the end.