#48: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is Bill Bryson's very amusing memoir of growing up in Des Moines, Iowa during the 1950's. Bryson grew up in a middle-class family, with his parents, who both wrote for the local newspaper, and his brother and sister. He describes with nostalgia the adventures he engaged in as a young boy in a quick changing society.

One of the amusing things in Bryson's book is the cavalier attitude toward safety that people in the 50's had compared with today. He describes nuclear tests in Nevada in which the fallout could easily drift across populated areas, but people did not care. In fact, they actually went closer to these sites to get a better look. He also talks about things like the preponderance of food dyes, preservatives, and artificial flavors, which people looked at as signs of progress in food preparation without considering any adverse effects.

Bryson also describes his superhero alter ego, as described in the title. Whenever someone such as a teacher or other mean adult offended him, the Thunderbolt Kid would come out that person would be vaporized.

If you have ever read anything else by Bill Bryson, you know that he has a great sense of humor. He also engages in many escapades with a variety of characters. Some brief anecdotes include when he was in high school and there was a plot to liberate beer from the distributor, as well as a set of too smart for their own good brothers who get the idea to set off an explosive device in a high school field. It is the stories like these that make the reader laugh repeatedly.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is a book that I would highly recommend, and it encouraged me to go to the library and pick up more books by Bill Bryson.