The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

Bill Bryson

Oct 2006 · Sold by Crown

About this ebook

From one of the world's most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body, a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the 1950s.

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 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)—in his head—as "The Thunderbolt Kid."

Using 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—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’s earlier classic, A Walk in the Woods, 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.

Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of his inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is as wondrous a book as Bill Bryson has ever written. It will enchant anyone who has ever been young.

Ratings and reviews

Not having Brown up in the 50s I can't comment on his accurate this book is, but I found it to be a very funny, very easy to read book that any fan of Bill Bryson's will enjoy; I loved it!

I was laughing out loud at some of his memories because my brother and I lived them, too!!! The age of innocence! Hysterical!!!

Lich su la mot nha trai mien phi cho su can thiet va day du chi tiet de phan loai tuy chon theo tung suy nghi cua tung phan doan co tat ca o do.!/Lanh dao no tuong dong voi tu duy va ca tri tue dua tren trai nghiem de biet roi sinh ra nhieu huong tot dep de pho bien cho nhan loai voi nhung can vi vay tam tri toi lanh dao ban than toi no bao toi phai di mot duong chung va di mai con duong da chon va moi khoan cach ma toi qua thi toi de lai nhung gi toi biet duoc rai het hai ben le duong de cho bon tre chung hoc hoi boi vi bon tre thich ngich ngon hai luom theo y no nhung chung chua co kinh nghiem nen toi de do cho cho chung no hoc de co ti kinh nghiem ma di con duong toi da di do cung la mot viec lam mâ tam tri toi da lanh dao ban than toi nhu vay va su dung sao cho dung mo hinh cua quy trinh trong do do la trong bo nao cua ai do su dung mien sao la dung gay hai toi bat ky linh vuc sinh ton nao la tot cho mot qua trinh huu ich bao gom cho thoi gian tiep theo va doi song thi phai can thu de ma song cho nen moi co duoc thu moi me de ma phat trien tiep theo do cung la mot quy luat nhu He Mat Troi Ma Cac Hanh Tinh Luon Tuan Thu Quay quanh mat troi ma de huong duoc nang luong cung nhu vay chat hap tu mat troi ban tang vay do la tuan thu de co day du su + huong.!

About the author

Bill Bryson's bestselling books include A Walk in the Woods, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and A Short History of Nearly Everything (which won the Aventis Prize in Britain and the Descartes Prize, the European Union's highest literary award). He was chancellor of Durham University, England's third oldest university, from 2005 to 2011, and is an honorary fellow of Britain's Royal Society.