Bill Bryson's novel offers great insight into the reality of growing up in the 50's. It combines the story of the imaginary figure, the Thunderbolt Kid and the story of the real figure, Bryson into a souped-up childhood memoir. During the postwar prosperity, the Thunderbolt Kid's not quite so mild mannered alter ego, suffers through the drudgeries of school, Milton Milton Jr.'s sleep-overs, and the Sunday morning paper route, while he busies himself with the immense but utterly satisfying task of ridding the world of morons. Bill Bryson escorts readers through the 50's in a way that can only perturb librarians around the world by causing uncontrollable fits of muffled mirth that pervade the farthest expanses of the book filled building. This book offers so much that it should quickly attain top priority in your agenda of books to read.