PositiveThe New York TimesWriters are often not generous, especially to people who cover the same turf, but I’m stepping aside, flourishing my hat in a princely bow and declaring Bill Geist the reigning Zeit-Geist of the baby boomer generation. In his charming new book, he has perfectly captured what middle-class life was like in the midcentury American Midwest ... This is a memoir that could have slithered off the road with colorful characters flattened to \'Hee Haw\' hillbilly stereotypes. Geist avoids that, while also nimbly sidestepping the kind of groan-inducing lecture given to teenagers by people his age ... If you’re looking for a book with crazy plot twists and a supersonic narrative arc, this one may not be for you. It’s a slow meditation on a time gone by. Like a photograph whose Kodachrome has started to turn sepia, it may not be modern or high-tech but it’s a meaningful and accurate rendering of times past.
