Bill Bryson is an excellent story teller. Given any subject, literally any at all, and he weaves a hilarious tale that is just so damn fun. He also wrote 'A Short History About Nearly Everything' which is a science novel, but his main area of expertise if he can be said to have one is travel books. I've never read any of them but I could see how he could make any locations seem somewhere I would like to go. His language is very commiserate and makes even the world of science personal and understandable.
Thunderbolt Kid is his autobiography and general memoir about the 50's when he was growing up. I really think that it would have been helpful to read this book when I was younger so that I might have been able to grow up in my parents' house with a little bit more understanding. That's not to say that my family is anything like Bill Bryson's but I think the book serves as a time capsule to really let others know what it was like to grow up during that time. His somewhat depressed views of the downward trends he has seen in American society are balanced by the lighthearted optimism of a superhero. He sees the loss of the downtown to a car driven society a huge loss but at the same time offers great possibilities of fun and foolishness that give heart to youngsters such as myself who seek to be as playful as possible in a world of serious business. His commentary strikes frankly and simply at the centre of what I think is a developing problem in our society; that there is way to much homogenizations and all together far to little fun being had. As a whole it seems we may have lost a whole lot of innocence and giddy playfulness that really should be desired. I still haven't seen a happy business man out there who wouldn't rather be doing something else with their lives. I just don't see how we can let ourselves be pushed around by the need for money but I think this is maybe to big of a problem for me to deal with in anyone's life but my own. Bryson, however, at least eloquently states the case.
Though Bryson's writing talent is a rare one that is simply enjoyable in its essence, I have to say that I am somewhat glad that he only writes non-fiction. Not glad so much as understanding. Though the art of a novel can be highly debated obviously, I think it can be agreed that his novels lack a solid substance or literary message beyond that one plainly told. Nothing wrong with that, and he doesn't claim to be a literary novelist, but it must be known that it is just a simply, straight forward story that one might not learn more from than a good TV show. There is no essence to the story, no central driving theme. He jumps around from topic to topic just telling stories about this or that.
Worth reading just for his great wit and hilarious writing, but there is little substance beyond that.
Four jade plants out of five; almost the level of Calvin and Hobbes but just not quite.
See you space cowboy.
Andrew
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