Ever since his gut-bustingly funny debut， The Lost Continent， American travel writer Bill Bryson has been known as one of the keenest and most humorous observers of both his home country and abroad. The Lost Continent detailed his travels around small-town USA， looking for the quiet dignity and strangeness he remembered from growing up in Iowa， while the hilarious Neither Here Nor There was about student wanderings round Europe. Now， in The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels Through My Childhood， Bryson returns to his childhood in the American Fifties.

美國(guó)旅行作家比爾#8226;布萊森因其令人忍俊不禁的處女作《一腳踩進(jìn)小美國(guó)》獲得國(guó)內(nèi)外讀者的廣泛認(rèn)同，被認(rèn)為是最幽默最敏銳的作家之一。該書(shū)詳細(xì)描寫了他在美國(guó)小鎮(zhèn)上的游歷，找尋記憶中當(dāng)年在愛(ài)荷華寧?kù)o平和而且妙趣橫生的童年生活，而筆調(diào)歡快的《不是故鄉(xiāng)非客鄉(xiāng)》則講述了他在學(xué)生時(shí)代漫游歐洲的故事。如今，在新作《霹靂小子的時(shí)代和生活：回憶錄》當(dāng)中，布萊森轉(zhuǎn)向他上個(gè)世紀(jì)五十年代時(shí)在美國(guó)的童年生活。

The book opens with a description of how good it was to be an American in the 50s， when the country was undoubtedly the richest and most prosperous in the world – a slightly stark contrast with today's economic and political insecurity. \"I can't imagine there was a more gratifying time or place to be alive than America in the 1950s，\" writes Bryson， and he makes the reader believe it， too， with descriptions of hope， optimism， and gigantic platters of Midwestern food. He's very acute and funny on the roughness of childhood， too – like the \"ice hockey game that involved four thousand kids， all slashing away at each other with sticks for at least three quarters of an hour before anyone realized we didn't have a puck\".

本書(shū)以描述美國(guó)上個(gè)世紀(jì)五十年代的美好生活開(kāi)場(chǎng)，當(dāng)時(shí)美國(guó)是全球當(dāng)之無(wú)愧的最富強(qiáng)國(guó)家——與當(dāng)今經(jīng)濟(jì)政治不安的美國(guó)小有對(duì)比?！拔蚁胂蟛怀鲇腥魏螘?huì)比生活在1950年的美國(guó)更幸福的地方”，布萊森這樣寫到，通過(guò)對(duì)希望，樂(lè)觀主義和美國(guó)中西部大份食物的描寫，他也使讀者對(duì)此深信不疑。同時(shí)，對(duì)孩提時(shí)代的調(diào)皮搗蛋他也是極盡挖苦和取笑之能事，比如，“有四千個(gè)孩子參加的冰上曲棍球比賽，所有人都花了至少三刻鐘的時(shí)間拿著棍子互相追逐，之后卻發(fā)現(xiàn)我們根本連冰球都還沒(méi)有”。

The book is at its funniest when Bryson becomes a teenager， desperate to get into the strip show at the county fair and indulging in wild escapades involving his loyal friend Katz (seen in two of his other books as an adult) and gigantic amounts of beer. Yet there's an edge to the whole thing， too; Bryson trawls through newspapers and historical accounts to reveal the nuclear anxiety and racial hatred – black ministers murdered just for registering to vote， angry screaming mobs – behind the peace and prosperity. A lovely， funny， serious book， and a great one for understanding America.

本書(shū)最令人捧腹大笑的地方是布萊森青春期時(shí)，冒險(xiǎn)去觀看鄉(xiāng)村集市上的脫衣舞表演，忘乎所以地跟死黨卡茨（在其它兩部作品中是位成年人）共同策劃用大量啤酒瘋狂惡作劇。整個(gè)故事當(dāng)然也不會(huì)完全都是無(wú)厘頭，布萊森從報(bào)紙和史實(shí)中了解到了核恐慌和種族仇視——在表面的平靜繁榮之下——黑人牧師們因去登記投票而被謀殺，尖叫憤怒的暴徒?？傊?，這是一部令人愉快、妙趣橫生、嚴(yán)肅的作品，并且對(duì)了解美國(guó)很有幫助。