Overview
Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century--1951--in the middle of the United States--Des Moines, Iowa--in the middle of the largest generation in American history--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 twenty-four-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 wearing a 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--in his head--as "The Thunderbolt Kid." Using his old fantasy-life persona as a springboard, Bill Bryson re-creates the life of his family in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality--a life at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of Bill Bryson's inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" is as wondrous a book as Bill Bryson has ever written.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780767919364
- ISBN-10: 076791936X
- Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
- Publish Date: October 2006
- Dimensions: 9.38 x 6.4 x 1.02 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.17 pounds
- Page Count: 288
Related Categories
Bill Bryson strikes again
Don't ever read a Bill Bryson book while drinking a carbonated soft drink, or (as in my case) draft root beer. A snort of laughterinevitable in a Bryson bookwill send frothing bubbles up your nose or (as in my case) out your nose, which can be momentarily very painful, albeit exceptionally amusing to anyone in your immediate vicinity. Bryson's latest, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, chronicles the writer's early years in Iowa, as well as the rich history of his alter-ego, the valiant Thunderbolt Kid, scourge of villains worldwide (well, perhaps just Iowa-wide). The Thunderbolt Kid arrived in Des Moines in 1951 (electron year 21,000,047,002), dropped off in a silver spaceship by his father, Volton, who hypnotized the Bryson family into thinking that Bill was a normal boy.
In the manner of a latter-day Mark Twain, Bryson spins tales of everyday events that somehow transcend normality to a plane of wonderment and humor. When his father was once invited out for Chinese food, he reported back incredulously to the family: "They eat it with sticks, you know." His mother's horrified reply? "Goodness!" In one of a series of Midwest-inflected vignettes, Bryson rats out his sister, who could spot celebrity homosexuals with uncanny precision: "She told me Rock Hudson was gay in 1959, long before anyone would have guessed it. She knew that Richard Chamberlain was gay before he did, I believe."
For boomers, Bryson's latest will serve up a steaming course of nostalgia for times long gone (he and I were born in the same year, as was Sting, but I digress): Sky King, TV dinners, the Brooklyn Dodgers, X-Ray Spex, Sputnik, Dr. Kildare, the Cold War, Tareytons and Strato Streak V-8 engines. For those who arrived later, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid will still be a hilarious look at bygone days, but you may need help from an old Saturday Evening Post or that old bald guy down the street to understand some of the references. Whatever your age, you will yuk it up big time reading Thunderbolt Kid. Just don't forget what I said about the soft drinks.
Bill Bryson strikes again
Don't ever read a Bill Bryson book while drinking a carbonated soft drink, or (as in my case) draft root beer. A snort of laughterinevitable in a Bryson bookwill send frothing bubbles up your nose or (as in my case) out your nose, which can be momentarily very painful, albeit exceptionally amusing to anyone in your immediate vicinity. Bryson's latest, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, chronicles the writer's early years in Iowa, as well as the rich history of his alter-ego, the valiant Thunderbolt Kid, scourge of villains worldwide (well, perhaps just Iowa-wide). The Thunderbolt Kid arrived in Des Moines in 1951 (electron year 21,000,047,002), dropped off in a silver spaceship by his father, Volton, who hypnotized the Bryson family into thinking that Bill was a normal boy.
In the manner of a latter-day Mark Twain, Bryson spins tales of everyday events that somehow transcend normality to a plane of wonderment and humor. When his father was once invited out for Chinese food, he reported back incredulously to the family: "They eat it with sticks, you know." His mother's horrified reply? "Goodness!" In one of a series of Midwest-inflected vignettes, Bryson rats out his sister, who could spot celebrity homosexuals with uncanny precision: "She told me Rock Hudson was gay in 1959, long before anyone would have guessed it. She knew that Richard Chamberlain was gay before he did, I believe."
For boomers, Bryson's latest will serve up a steaming course of nostalgia for times long gone (he and I were born in the same year, as was Sting, but I digress): Sky King, TV dinners, the Brooklyn Dodgers, X-Ray Spex, Sputnik, Dr. Kildare, the Cold War, Tareytons and Strato Streak V-8 engines. For those who arrived later, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid will still be a hilarious look at bygone days, but you may need help from an old Saturday Evening Post or that old bald guy down the street to understand some of the references. Whatever your age, you will yuk it up big time reading Thunderbolt Kid. Just don't forget what I said about the soft drinks.