Book review: Sun Blocked

Scott Lunt chronicles life in the slow lane across naked America.

“A light-hearted and humorous view of life on the road as he and his wife travelled naked through the highways and byways of the USA.”

BOOK REVIEW

SUN BLOCKED by SCOTT LUNT

Published in paperback ISBN 9798472216746 and as an ebook for Kindle

When a series of previously-published articles are pulled together into a book, it can sometimes look exactly that: pulled together. It’s a familiar format, beloved by columnists, diarists and publishers alike, and doesn’t always work. In the case of Sun Blocked, it does.

If you’ve read some or all the articles before - in the (now defunct) NUSA SUN magazine - they’re worth a re-read. And if the content is new to you, you’ll certainly enjoy Scott’s adventures, misadventures and intrepid travels into the heartland of naked America. Some of the chapter headings are fairly self-explanatory: Roadside Attractions, When Nature Calls, and Textile Trouble. Others are a little more cryptic: Yellow Is The Colour of ‘Ouch!’ or Three Years Learning To Breathe. And then there are the ones that could be song titles from a Jimmy Buffett album: Back Road Boogie, Cloudy Days and Sunny Nudists, and This Nomadic Lifestyle Fits Us Just Fine.

It also helps that, although the chapters don’t carry datelines to show when they were originally published, they do seem to be in chronological/geographical order, allowing you to follow the story through, just as you would if the book had been written as a stand-alone travelogue. The magazine column may have stopped in 2019, but the information doesn’t feel dated, and as anybody who has visited the more rural states of the USA will testify, time can move very slowly there anyway. Scott might hail from a relatively big city himself, but his portrayal of the people he meets and the places he finds is affectionate, not patronising. He and his wife (not forgetting Peanut the dog, of course) obviously had a great time overall, and it shows, in a book that is both quietly informative and gently amusing.

Apart from missing a map which would plot their travels, perhaps the only downside is the poor quality of the photographs, and their scant number. For some reason, the ones in the book look like an afterthought, and you wonder why they bothered to include them at all. Thankfully the prose paints a vivid enough picture.

Sun Blocked would be a good companion to take with you if you are planning anything resembling a similar trip, and whilst it’s not laugh-out-loud funny in the manner of Bill Bryson, the bite-size chapters make it perfect for flicking through if you’re in the smallest room: especially if the smallest room is located inside your RV.

Paul Rouse

VERDICT

Naturist content 5-star

Good read 4-star

Value for money 4-star