Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
A Memoir

by Bill Bryson



      Bill Bryson’s books are always a treat, and this latest title is no exception. He whisks us back to America in the 1950s, probably the best era the world has ever known (or ever will know) and the best place to live to enjoy it in. It is an age of optimism, of money to burn and new inventions. A time when everything was deemed good for you, whether smoking the same cigarettes as your doctor, or watching nuclear bombs exploding. An age of innocence, the sort of dangerous innocence which destroys itself, and is effectively the smiling face of ignorance.

So far, this sounds more like a sermon than a humorous autobiography, which makes it the wrong way to start this review. Bryson introduces us to Kidworld, and the unforgettable day when he found the Sacred Jersey of Zap, making him realize he must indeed be from another planet and on a mission to rid the world of idiots. This is a wonderful evocation of what it is like to be a child, giving us a hilarious view of the world from this perspective. School, one’s home town, parents and assorted strange relations, the first fumblings of romance, paper rounds and TV shows. Amongst the laugh-out-loud moments (and there are a lot of those) are the more amazing facts of life in the 1950s, sure to make anybody too young to have been an adult then gasp in amazement. Hence the first part of the review, and the assurance that the past really is a different country although in Bryson’s capable hands we can at least have a jolly good laugh at it. Highly recommended.

The Book

Black Swan (Transworld UK)
June 4, 2007
Paperback
9780552772549
Autobiography [1950s Idaho, US]
More at Amazon.com US|| UK
(US edition is different)
Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Rachel A Hyde
Reviewed 2007
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