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The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy Used: $1.83
You Save: $23.17 (93%)
New (53) Used (105) Collectible (23) from $1.83
Rating:  210 reviews
Sales Rank: 4564
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 076791936X
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.4092
EAN: 9780767919364
ASIN: 076791936X
Publication Date: October 17, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: EX-LIBRARY; used item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned for refund. Buy with confidence - your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics!
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Product Description
pbFrom one of the most beloved and bestselling authors in the English language, a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the 1950sbr/bbrBill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century#8212;1951#8212;in the middle of the United States#8212;Des Moines, Iowa#8212;in the middle of the largest generation in American history#8212;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)#8212;in his head#8212;as "The Thunderbolt Kid." brbrUsing this persona as a springboard, Bill Bryson re-creates the life of his family and his native city in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality#8212;a life at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. It was, he reminds us, a happy time, when automobiles and televisions and appliances (not to mention nuclear weapons) grew larger and more numerous with each passing year, and DDT, cigarettes, and the fallout from atmospheric testing were considered harmless or even good for you. He brings us into the life of his loving but eccentric family, including affectionate portraits of his father, a gifted sportswriter for the local paper and dedicated practitioner of isometric exercises, and OF his mother, whose job as the home furnishing editor for the same paper left her little time for practicing the domestic arts at home. The many readers of Bill Bryson#8217;s earlier classic, iA Walk in the Woods,/i will greet the reappearance in these pages of the immortal Stephen Katz, seen hijacking literally boxcar loads of beer. He is joined in the Bryson gallery of immortal characters by the demonically clever Willoughby brothers, who apply their scientific skills and can-do attitude to gleefully destructive ends. brbrWarm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of his inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, iThe Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid/i is as wondrous a book as Bill Bryson has ever written. It will enchant anyone who has ever been young./p
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| Customer Reviews: Read 205 more reviews...
 One of Bill Bryson's Funniest Books November 22, 2008
AnD
One of Bill Bryson's funniest books. Autobiographical stories of his childhood. Get it on tape and listen aloud. Then you can crack up with other people. Read it by yourself, and you get weird looks from people on the subway while you hold back laughter. The choice is yours. GET THIS BOOK.
 Funny but audio version not helped by author's voice October 28, 2008
J. Badger (Bimingham, Al)
I listened to the audio version, narrated by the author. Bryson is a great humorist but not a great narrator. His voice is soft and has an unusual accent, most likely due to his having lived in England for most of his adult life. Still, I recommend the book if you are a baby boomer in a nostalgic mood. Bryson gives a very humorous picture of growing up in the fifties.
The Thunderbolt Kid September 29, 2008
Elizabeth Kent (Buffalo, NY)
What an enjoyable read. Brought back all the wonderful memories of childhood along with an adult slant about the world today. Every chapter a treat.
 Did He Mistakenly Combine Two Different Books? August 15, 2008
J. Moran (Illinois, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have read several of Bryson's books, the most recent being his able essay on Shakespeare, but this one I found almost disturbing. The book is supposedly about growing up in Des Moines (Bryson was born in 1951) and part of the book is about that. But lots is not. There are hypercritical and one sided rants on US policy in the Cold War, on the anti-communist hysteria of the 1950's and a number of other aspects of life in the 1950's of which Bryson disapproves. Now some of these things are pretty soft targets and deserve some measure of abuse, but the rants are not relating the experience of the very young boy who experienced the times. They are the views of an adult evaluating the times and an angry adult at that. br / br /Some of the parts that are about growing up in Des Moines are fairly funny, but they are just as frequently nasty and are often fueled by anger as well. Bryson is thoroughly unkind to many of the people that he describes in the book. The funny parts were not enough to me to counterbalance the nasty. Overall the book reeks of an arrogant superiority that I have not found in other Bryson books. His other books did not seem to me to be mean spirited. This one does. br / br /
Way funnier than Beaver Cleaver ever was July 23, 2008
YoMama (USA)
As a kid growing up in the Midwest in the 1950s, I totally related to Bill Bryson's recounting of his childhood in Iowa. He did all sorts of stuff kids today would never get away with - their mothers would be horrified. Of course, much of his recollections are exaggerated, but not so much so that they don't ring true to those who grew up in that post WWII era. br / br /Bryson's knack for creatively recounting minor incidents from his life - like working on a scab for months, until it was 1 1/2 inches thick and you could stick a thumbtack in it and not feel a thing - had me laughing out loud again and again. His imagination turns a day at the beach, or dinner and a movie with his mom, into one hilarious event after another. His was an era where getting stitches more than once was not only common but a measurement of bravery...or guts. br / br /I highly recommend this entertaining, feel-good, laugh-till-you-cry (complete with tears) experience, a baby boomer's delight and worthy of your time. br /50 Ways to Leave Your Mother
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