The Life of Bryson

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid Written and read by Bill Bryson

Publisher: Corgi Audio

Price: £14.99 Audio CD

Bill Bryson is a prolific purveyor of humorous observation. In this book, a biographical account of his childhood in a small town in Iowa in the 1950s, he describes his family and home town with warmth and affection, and just a hint of melancholy.

Bryson’s middleclass upbringing is not very remarkable. To be honest, not much happens at all in this book. What is interesting is the world he is grows up in. Bryson seamlessly weaves the political geography of America into the story of his cosseted childhood. It was a time of innovation, with the invention of contact lenses, ball point pens and sandwich toasters. Bryson describes it as the only time you’d show these gadgets off, inviting the neighbours to dinner to gaze at the shiny new contraption on the kitchen worktop. Both his mother and father were journalists, both working on the local paper, the Des Moines Register. His father was a popular sports writer, and a notorious penny pincher. He would take the family to a specific dentist to save money - one that didn’t dispense painkillers! Bryson’s mother was a home interiors writer and terrible cook (a fact she later disputes). The description of his father’s reporting on baseball games would, I’m sure, appeal to some people, especially Americans. But, I admit, it all went over my head and I was tempted to skip a track or two. Bryson’s alter ego, The Thunderbolt Kid, was born from his love for comic-book superheroes and the discovery of a moth eaten jumper with a gold satin thunder bolt on the front. The Thunderbolt Kid could vaporize irritating people with just a stare. He describes the America of the 1950’s as booming. They didn’t have any debt from the Second World War, thus the country could afford to propel itself head long into the Space Race (Americans were left with more than a taste of resentment following Russia’s successful Rocket Launch). I gasped in amazement as Bryson described America’s Nuclear tests - people used to take picnics and sit on the boundary to watch the ‘mushroom cloud??! America of the 1950s and 60s was still clinging to racism. Although, Bryson declares he never saw any form of it whilst growing up. He does, albeit anecdotally, describe his Grandmother's bigotry. I was reminded of the old lady in the ice cream advert who bangs on the piano as she’s led out of the room after ranting about her son’s illegitimacy. However, her name for liquorice sweets turned my smile in to a scowl. This is a book for Bill Bryson fans. His lyrical humour and easy going manner keep you bouncing along with dialogue until the very end. His family is playfully presented, from the infamous `toity jar' to his best friend, and very gay, Jed.