Synopsis: Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century—1951—in the middle of the United States—Des Moines, Iowa—in the middle of the largest generation in American history—the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons)—in his head—as "The Thunderbolt Kid."
My thoughts: Bill Bryson is known for his humor and I needed to listen to a funny read. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid was my first Bryson book that held my interest to a point.
I found Bryson's accounts of his childhood and America's history to be quite interesting. I came to learn what life was like back in the 1950s and came to learn what America used to be like. His childhood memories were fun to listen to and I couldn't help but chuckle a few times. I do admit, though, that I expected this book to be funnier than what it was and unfortunately I lost interest many times throughout the audiobook.
My thoughts on the performance: The author himself read the book and I would have preferred that it was done by someone else. Bryson did have a nice voice to listen to but his voice was monotone the majority of the time that made me fall asleep numerous of times. After the tenth time of going back and re-listening to the parts that I fell asleep on, I gave up and just continued listening to the parts that I was awake for.
Perhaps this book would have been better read in print than listened to? There's a reason why this book received many rave reviews but for me, it fell short. I'm saddened that I had this experience with this author. I rate this:
No comments:
Post a Comment