The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
Ratings43
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings43
Average rating3.7
Bill Bryson on his most personal journey yet: into his own childhood in America's Mid-West.Some say that the first hint that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came when his mother sent him to school in lime-green Capri pants. Others think it all started with 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 his deeply funny new memoir, he travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, and the curious world of 1950s America. It was a happy time, when almost everything was good for you, including DDT, cigarettes and nuclear fallout. This is a book about growing up in a specific time and place. But in Bryson's hands, it becomes everyone's story, one that will speak volumes – especially to anyone who has ever been young.
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Reviews with the most likes.
This book was great. I did not grow up in the 50's of course but I loved to hear the stories my mom, dad and grandparents told about it. This book is funny, funny, funny. There are a few parts that boarder on the obscene I must warn you, but really nothing too bad in my opinion.
Bryson returns to form, hilarious and heartwarming anew. You'll enjoy the long-winded retelling of his parents' explanations about how to live life in 1950s Des Moines, along with informative discussions about how to break into a vending machine without getting caught, and how not to construct an improvised explosive device to get out of school.
Well... I'm definitely not this book's target market, since I'm not a baby boomer. Bill Bryson is always funny, and this book definitely had some hilarious turns of phrase. I have kind of complicated feelings about it, I suppose... he is very nostalgic for an era that I think of as being gross and oppressive, but undoubtedly Bill Bryson did have a very pleasant childhood in 1950s Des Moines, so shouldn't he have the right to write a happy memoir? I GUESS. I enjoyed this book, it was a fun, quick read, but to me, nothing as enjoyable as A Walk in the Woods or any of his travel books, which I unhesitatingly recommend.
I'd read anything by Bill Bryson, he makes me laugh without fail. Even if he wrote out his shopping list I'm sure he'd make it funny, unfortunately this is more or less what he falls back on a bit too often.
The unique circumstances of a fifties american childhood are captured with an alien anthropologist's eye but the lists of products or TV shows I could have done without.
