This book review should have been on Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. But because the seller I bought it from on Amazon uses a method of shipping slightly slower than carrier pigeon, I haven’t even started it yet. Instead I picked up a Bill Bryson which I got for Christmas – The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.

This is mostly an autobiography of Bryson’s childhood and early teens, but that seems almost incidental to simply being a history of 1950’s America. It was a fascinating time. Who knew? Bryson presents a picture of a time when families were happy, comfortable and safe, and when life in general seemed golden. The semi-fictional protagonist in Memoirs of a Geisha (which, as those of you who have been paying attention will know, I reviewed earlier) writes of her visit to New York at about the same time Bryson is describing, and relates her astonishment at the wealth and luxury. While electricity was becoming common in Japan, in America it burned everywhere, all day every day. While Tokyo was proud of its first concrete train station, the stations in New York were made of solid marble. With a similar astonishment, Bryson describes the fact that Americans had more mod cons (refrigerators, televisions, assorted obscure gadgets) than the rest of the world combined.

Bryson gives a vivid and fascinating (really) account of life in 50’s America – world events, literature and TV of the time, shops, food and social activities. But naturally the funniest parts come when Bryson describes his own boyhood and family. We learn how he met the infamous Stephen Katz (only infamous if you’ve read Bryson’s other books, however), how he finally managed to see his first strip show despite the ever-increasing entry age, and the day he discovered the toity jar in the fridge. No, I’m not going to tell you what a toity jar is. Just trust me when I say this is a very worthwhile read.

With Bryson, you always learn something but have so much fun doing it you hardly realize you’re getting an education.

I realize this is a bit of a short review; I find it easier to review novels. But one more thing I will say is thank you, God, for giving Bill Bryson such an eventful childhood (and adulthood, come to that). It fills my own life with laughter. And in the words of Mr. Bennett, “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?'' :o)