I have read every Bill Bryson book ever penned. I have enjoyed every last one of them without exception, even the rubbish ones. I'm pleased to report however that his latest book is far from that. I enjoyed 'A Short History' but it was never anything I could quite read cover to cover continuously. Thunderbolt Kid is a return to the Bill we've come to know and love. Although I'm only eighteen and British myself and one would think that I would have no common frame of reference with which to appreciate an exploration of life in 1950s America, the fantastic thing about this book is that you don't need to have been born in the fifties or even in the states to enjoy it. I think the blurb puts it very eloquently when it says that all you need to have been is young once. That said, where it does get technical, Bill goes to some lengths to explain it in a way that allows those of us not of colonial extraction to continue to snort with laughter. Be warned, this is not a book to be read in public or while eating or drinking. As with each of Bill's books, it really is laugh-out-loud funny. Well done Bill, you've not lost it and you remain one of my favourite authors, even if you do insist on insulting my home town.
