Book Review: The 66 Kid: Raised on the Mother Road by Bob Boze Bell
Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.
Bob Boze Bell has been a rock musician, cartoonist, radio host, magazine publisher and other interesting jobs. And he spent most of his youth in Kingman, Arizona, where his father had gas stations on Route 66. This is his memoir of those years.
It’s a coffee table book, lavishly illustrated with photographs and Mr. Bell’s paintings. Fortunately, he has many family pictures and old clippings to illustrate his anecdotes and historical tidbits. It’s a fascinating (if possibly biased) look at life in Arizona in the 1950s and 1960s. Mr. Bell is an accomplished writer, and his prose is excellent.
Note that this is not a comprehensive book about the highway itself; it primarily covers the Kingman area and how Route 66 affected Mr. Bell’s life.
At a suggested retail price of thirty dollars, this book is good value for money if you’re interested in Arizona or Bob Boze Bell. Others might want to see if their library has it for borrowing, as it is a handsome volume.
Of course, it would be remiss of me to close without a reference to the famous song, so here it is:
I had to laugh at myself when I first read this – for a moment I was trying to wrap my mind around Bob Bell as Bozo writing a book about Route 66. 🙂
It is an intersting name, isn’t it.
Kingman AZ is one of my favorite towns. We visit there about twice a year and follow Route 66 often in our area. There’s a stretch of it between here and the Central Valley that is the original – goes up through the hills and is now mostly just broken asphalt. A great drive, if a tad bumpy and uncertain. This looks like a great book.
Maybe someday I will get out that way if I ever become financially stable again.