Book Review: “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid”

SHEILA ALEXANDER
Development communications coordinator

Bill Bryson’s writing is always good for a laugh and “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid” is no exception.

Bryson looks back on his childhood in the 1950s and reminds us of those less-complicated, often-humorous times. This memoir also is the perfect excuse to laugh at some of the cultural mores of those times, which in hindsight seem ludicrous.

Bryson pokes fun at everything from fallout drills in school — “I remember being profoundly amazed that anyone would suppose that a little wooden desk would provide a safe haven in the event of an atomic bomb being dropped on Des Moines.” — to state fairs, movie theater matinees and the advent of convenience foods and ethnic variety at mealtimes.

“In our house we didn’t eat … anything with dubious regional names like ‘pone’ or ‘gumbo,’ or foods that had at any time been an esteemed staple of slaves or peasants,” he writes.

The humor isn’t quite up there with “Walk in the Woods” or “Notes from a Big Country,” but it will inspire 1950s buffs and baby boomers to steep in nostalgia and look back and laugh at ourselves.

“The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid” is available for $14.95 in paperback at the Sweet Briar Book Shop.