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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780767919364 
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Powells.com Staff Pick
Bill Bryson has tackled the Appalachian Trail, troublesome words, Captain James Cook, and repatriation. After the entertaining (and just slightly ambitious) Short History of Nearly Everything, he turns the spotlight back on himself. "This is a book about not very much," Bryson assures readers. It's "about being small and getting larger slowly." Right: it's about life. And as you'd expect, hardly a page goes by without serving up a laugh or one of the author's trademark, go-tell-somebody details. Fans will not be disappointed, and plenty more just might jump on the bandwagon for the ride.
Recommended by Dave, Powells.com
I grew up in Minnesota, just north of Iowa where Bill Bryson's memoir is
set. I laughed out loud at his descriptions of bundling up the children
to face the Midwestern winters and other passages. He also beautifully
captures the innocence and security of being a child in the '50s. Kids
are no longer encouraged (or forced) to "get outside and play and don't
come back until suppertime." Those magical hours of figuring out how to
entertain oneself led Mr. Bryson to some wonderful memories and some
very fine writing.
Recommended by Alison E., Powells.com (See all of our Staff Top 5s of 2006)
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)
"Bill Bryson is such a funny and evocative writer that he can transform the least promising material into something memorably hilarious....Bryson's sardonic wit and absurdist sense of fun fuel every 'uneventful' page, bringing to life a schizophrenic decade of wild optimism mixed with rampant fear." Chuck Leddy, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire CSM review)
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
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.
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About the Author
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 5 comments:
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justannesopinion, April 21, 2008 (view all comments by justannesopinion)
Lots of fun, a good mix of common baby boomer experiences, fifties history/sociology, and matters specific to the author's life. Many observations about fifties childhood that I hadn't framed specifically, but which hit me with a jolt of recognition. The only flaw is that it's a little uneven, with occasional forced jokiness.
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m0martin, March 2, 2007 (view all comments by m0martin)
Laugh-out-loud memoir set in 1950s Midwest told with the natural humor of the best storytellers. Bryson is long-known for his excellent literary and elucidating gifts but "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" surpasses this reviewer's expectations. I have not laughed so hard in years, literally! If you enjoy Keillor's wobegon tales you'll absolutely devour this with relish and return for more! Your book-loving friends will thank you for recommending this gem.
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Dee, January 12, 2007 (view all comments by Dee)
The reviews for this book - on the Powell's page - are all very accurate. Humor, irreverance, sadness are within the pages. Validates stories we tell our children in case they had any doubts.
View all 5 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780767919364
- Subtitle:
- A Memoir
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Broadway Books
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- Literary
- Subject:
- United states
- Subject:
- Regional Subjects - Midwest
- Subject:
- Childhood Memoir
- Subject:
- Bryson, Bill
- Subject:
- Personal Memoirs
- Copyright:
- 2006
- Publication Date:
- October 2006
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 270
- Dimensions:
- 938x640x102 117
