We will open our 2008 Not Fiction Book Discussion with Bill Bryson's memoir The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Unlike many recent memoirists who describe remarkably troubled childhoods, Bryson tells us that "My kid days were pretty good ones, on the whole. My parents were patient and kind and approximately normal." He describes in vivid and humorous detail growing up in the 1950s in Des Moines, Iowa, capturing the optimism of America in that decade. His remarkably normal childhood led him to a writing career that has produced such best sellers as A Walk in the Woods and A Short History of Nearly Everything. Capturing the tone of Bryson's book, Scott Simon of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday says, "[Bryson's] mix of exquisite detail and inspired exaggeration all add up to truth with a capital T that rhymes with G that stands for out-loud guffaws." We hope you will be able to join us, either Tuesday, January 8 at 7:00 p.m. in Meeting Room A of Main Library on Calhoun Street or here on the blog, for what should be an entertaining discussion!
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is a great book, not only for the memories of the Fifties it brought back for me, but also the writing style of Bryson -- entertaining, fast-paced, and full of laugh-out-loud humor. Interspersed between all the hilarious anecdotes and incidents from the author's childhood, however, are trenchant observations about the social and cultural history of that era.
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