The brainy and humorous writer turns to his youth in '50s America.
In his first memoir, Bill Bryson writes charmingly of his youth — both real and imagined — in the 1950s in The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid; A Memoir. Best known for his brainy, humorous books on travel, grammar and even Shakespeare, in Thunderbolt Bryson turns his sharp wit not just on himself, but on the culture and society in which he was raised.

The young Bryson, who always had a lively imagination, became (at least in his own mind) The Thunderbolt Kid, superhero extraordinaire wont to race around the neighborhood "disguised" in an old sweatshirt with a thunderbolt on it, a towel serving as his cape. It’s no wonder that this impish kid, who could create an exciting new persona with just a few commonplace items, would grow to be a writer who tackles mundane topics like mimeograph paper, bland food and growing pains through a lens of humor, hyperbole and bittersweet nostalgia.

Bryson's world was rife with odd characters, and he pokes fun at most of them — but never maliciously. Reason enough to listen to Thunderbolt is the reappearance of Stephen Katz, that funny fellow from A Walk in the Woods. Katz is just as inept and inadvertently amusing in that earlier Bryson book, only this time he isn't stowing Little Debbie snack cakes as camping fare, but hijacking beer.

Especially humorous and astute are Bryson's observations on the cultural changes in America since the 1950s. For one thing, people seemed indestructible in those days: they didn't use seat belts or wear helmets when riding a bike; they smoked to their hearts (dis)content and feasted on TV dinners. All in all, this is a warm, affectionate, and forgiving look back at the Eisenhower Era

Not his funniest, but surely his most heartfelt book to date, The Thunderbolt Kid is read by the author with his usual aplomb and comedic timing. Just bear in mind that Bryson has been living in England for much of his adult life, so any mid-Western twang has long since evolved into a sort-of, but not-quite, British accent.