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Product Description
Review
“Outlandishly and improbably entertaining. . . . An evocation of childhood that’s movingly true, no exaggeration necessary.”
—The New York Times
“An entertaining romp of a book. . . . By the end of this vaudeville bill of a memoir, [Bryson] has you wishing you’d grown up in Des Moines in the 1950s yourself.”
—The Globe and Mail
“Pitch-perfect, nostalgic, and tenderly ironic. . . . Wise. Somewhat innocent. This is a marvelous book.”
—The Boston Globe
“A book about the joy of small things, about the rich and distinctive features that constitute normality, about the strange and singular ways in which everyday life is anything but quotidian. . . . Bryson is the master of the telling detail.”
—Observer (UK)
—The New York Times
“An entertaining romp of a book. . . . By the end of this vaudeville bill of a memoir, [Bryson] has you wishing you’d grown up in Des Moines in the 1950s yourself.”
—The Globe and Mail
“Pitch-perfect, nostalgic, and tenderly ironic. . . . Wise. Somewhat innocent. This is a marvelous book.”
—The Boston Globe
“A book about the joy of small things, about the rich and distinctive features that constitute normality, about the strange and singular ways in which everyday life is anything but quotidian. . . . Bryson is the master of the telling detail.”
—Observer (UK)
Product Description
From one of the most beloved and bestselling authors in the English language, a vivid, nostalgic and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the middle of the United States in the middle of the last century. A book that delivers on the promise that it is “laugh-out-loud funny.”
Some say that the first hints that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came from his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen jersey of rare fineness. Across the moth-holed chest was a golden thunderbolt. It may have looked like an old college football sweater, but young Bryson knew better. It was obviously the Sacred Jersey of Zap, and proved that he had been placed with this innocuous family in the middle of America to fly, become invisible, shoot guns out of people’s hands from a distance, and wear his underpants over his jeans in the manner of Superman.
Bill Bryson’s first travel book opened with the immortal line, “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” In this hilarious new memoir, he travels back to explore the kid he once was and the weird and wonderful world of 1950s America. He modestly claims that this is a book about not very much: about being small and getting much larger slowly. But for the rest of us, it is a laugh-out-loud book that will speak volumes – especially to anyone who has ever been young.
From the Hardcover edition.
Some say that the first hints that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came from his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen jersey of rare fineness. Across the moth-holed chest was a golden thunderbolt. It may have looked like an old college football sweater, but young Bryson knew better. It was obviously the Sacred Jersey of Zap, and proved that he had been placed with this innocuous family in the middle of America to fly, become invisible, shoot guns out of people’s hands from a distance, and wear his underpants over his jeans in the manner of Superman.
Bill Bryson’s first travel book opened with the immortal line, “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” In this hilarious new memoir, he travels back to explore the kid he once was and the weird and wonderful world of 1950s America. He modestly claims that this is a book about not very much: about being small and getting much larger slowly. But for the rest of us, it is a laugh-out-loud book that will speak volumes – especially to anyone who has ever been young.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the truley funniest books you will ever read.,
By
This review is from: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (Paperback)
In spite of the title, and on a freinds recomendation I read this book while driving back from Oklahoma City to Canada. Right from the get go it was so perfectly hilarious that I fell off the seat laughing and snorted beverages up my nose twice. The humor is of that old style that we seldom see anymore. The author does not resort to fart jokes or body fluids for titilation, but relys instead on clever wit, intelligent observations, and perfect comic timming to deliver a what I hoped would be endless tour of the growing up in America. We vist the 60s in small town Iowa ..That darkly innoccent time .. and relive the ludicous ironies of the nuclear age in North America. Mr Bryson has packed in his tour in some of the flat out funniest stuff I have come across and all because it is so real and so helplessly ridiculous..
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful memoir for baby boomers,
By
This review is from: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (Paperback)
I always enjoy Bill Bryson's travel books (NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, A WALK IN THE WOODS) and his books on language (THE MOTHER TONGUE).THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID is a memoir, and since Bryson and I grew up in the same decades, I found a lot to like in this book. His writing is always funniest when it's personal and self-deprecating, and his stories of himself as a child are vastly entertaining. But this book is more than memoir or a string of funny stories about his childhood. Bryson captures the time and place -- 50's small-town America -- and serves those "simpler times" up with affection. In those pre-minivan days a bicycle was a kid's ticket to ride; the movies were a gateway to the world; and a costume, whether the Thunderbolt Kid or Annie Oakley (am I saying too much?), was the passport to bravery and adventure. I thoroughly enjoyed THE THUNDERBOLT KID, and probably would have enjoyed it no matter which decades were mine. Maybe it's a book of particular interest to the first wave of Baby Boomers, but the humor and whimsy of its presentation are wonderful counterpoint to its well-researched social context. You're bound to laugh out loud at this book. If you like laughing out loud, then by all means read THE THUNDERBOLT KID.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
where is the time machine,
By
This review is from: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (Paperback)
I've just reread this book a few weeks agoBill Bryson has written some pretty good book and some less than stellar one ; this one goes straight into the first category. His depiction of America 1950/1960 as good as it ever gets but on top of this , his description of what is life for a youngster to grow up into this ,what seem to be the most fantastic time to grow up, just exceptionnal. At the same time that you will be smiling and laughing you way trough the book , it makes you feel so unlucky that you weren't born into Desmoines 60 years ago. Finishing up with that book , I could not get on with life without reading another Bryson from my librairy ...unfortunatly I picked "the lost continent" next ...which is ,without a doubt< the worst book the man has written. A good antidote
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