The Life And Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
A Memoir
Bryson, Bill
CD/Spoken Word
$17.97 + $1.99 USPS S/H
$0.90 of your order (5%) will be donated to the school of your choice.
BOOK SUMMARY
BONUS FEATURE: Exclusive interview with the author.
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 c
BOOK SYNOPSIS
BONUS FEATURE: Exclusive interview with the author.
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.
BOOK REVIEWS
A charming, funny recounting of growing up in Des Moines during the sleepy 1950s. Bryson combines nostalgia, sharp wit and a dash of hyperbole to recreate his childhood in the rural Midwest. A great, fun read, especially for Baby Boomers nostalgic for the good old days.
Kirkus Reviews *Starred*
While many memoirs convey a bittersweet nostalgia, Bill Brysons loving look at his childhood in The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is genuinely sweet. Framed within young Brysons fantasy of being a superhero, it matches the authors sparkling wit with his vivid, candid memories of 1950s America. Adding a healthy dose of social history, Bryson tells a larger story, with vignettes that reveal the gap between Americas postwar glow and its underlying angst. Bryson also touchingly recalls his fathers career as a sportswriter, his mothers awkward experiments with cooking and the outrageous adventures of his infamous traveling companion, Stephen Katz.
Publishers Weekly, Fall Preview
Bill Brysons laugh-out-loud pilgrimage through his Fifties childhood in heartland America is a national treasure. Its full of insights, wit, and wicked adolescent fantasies.
Tom Brokaw, NBC News
Bryson recounts the world of his younger self, buried in comic books in the Kiddie Corral at the local supermarket, resisting civil defense drills at school, and fruitlessly trying to unravel the mysteries of sex. His alter ego, the Thunderbolt Kid, born of his love for comic-book superheroes and the need to vaporize irritating people, serves as an astute outside observer of life around him. His familys foibles are humorously presented, from his mothers burnt, bland cooking to his fathers epic cheapness.
The larger world of 1950s America emerges through the lens of Billys world, including the dark underbelly of racism, the fight against communism, and the advent of the nuclear age.
Library Journal
Travel humorist Bryson took a decisive stand regarding his hometown almost 20 years ago when he published the story Fat Girls in Des Moines in Granta magazine. Now the author delves more deeply into his midwestern roots in a bittersweet laugh-out-loud recollection of his growing-up years. This affectionate portrait wistfully recalls the bygone days of Burns and Allen and downtown department stores but with a good-natured elbow poke to the ribs.
Booklist Reviews
"Takes us on yet another amiable ramble through terrain viewed with his characteristic mixture of bemused wit, acerbic astonishment and sweet benevolencewe come closest to the real Bryson in this, his first true memoirencompasses so much of human experience that you want to smile and sob at onceBrysons evocation of an era is near perfect: tender, hilarious and true. "
The Times (UK)
"A wittily incisive book about innocence, and its limits, but in no sense an innocent bookLike Alan Bennett, another ironist posing as a sentimentalist, Bryson can play the teddy-bear and then deliver a sudden, grizzly-style swipemight tell us as much about the oddities of the American way as a dozen think-tanks. "
Independent
"Always witty and sometimes hilariouswonderfully funny and touching."
Literary Review (UK)
"A funny, effortlessly readable, quietly enchanted memoirBryson also provides a quirky social history of Americahe always manages to slam on the brakes with a good joke just when things might get sentimental. "
Daily Mail (UK)
"He can capture the flavour of the past with the lightest of touchesmarvellous set piecesAs a chronicler of the foibles and absurdities of daily life, Bryson has few peers. "
Sunday Telegraph (UK)
"The beautifully realized elegiac tone of his childhood memoir invites readers to go tumbling down the rabbit hole of memory into the best days of their livesby turns playful affectionate, gently mocking, laugh-out-loud funny and even wistfully sad. His greatest gift is as a humorist, however, so it is the snickers, the guffaws and the undignified belly laughs he delivers on almost every page that make it worth buyingprobably the funniest book youll read this year. No, dammit. It is the funniest book youll find anytime soon. "
Sydney Morning Herald
"Is this the most cheerful book Ive ever read, or the saddest?...hilariousa lovely, happy book. "
London Evening Standard
"Bryson [writes] with a whiff of irony and a stronger perfume of affection, but never the stink of sentimentality. Darting between his life and the trajectory of America, he slips in a few key contextualising details, which he deploys with the same deft ease that made his A Short History of Nearly Everything so sneakily edifyingvery few [memoirs] contain a well of happiness this deep, or this complexly rendered."
Scotland on Sunday
From the Hardcover edition.
Submit a book reviewFOR RELATED BOOKS
Biography & Autobiography Books :: Editors, Journalists, Publishers Books
Biography & Autobiography Books :: Personal Memoirs Books
Humor Books :: General Books
MORE BOOK INFO
ISBN: 0739315234
ISBN(13-digit): 9780739315231
Dewey Decimal: 910.4092
Library of Congress: bl2006023623
Book Publisher: Random House
Language: ENG
Paper Weight (lb): .35 lb
If you like this book, you may also enjoy:
 | |
 | |
 | |
| Alphabetical Life | |
Where We Have Hope | |
Fargo Rock City | |
| Werris, Wendy | |
Meldrum, Andrew | |
Klosterman, Chuck | |
