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The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir |  | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $15.99
Buy Used: $1.25
as of 9/3/2010 08:17 PDT details
You Save: $14.74 (92%)
Seller: gwspokanebooks
Rating:  353 reviews
Sales Rank: 3088
Media: Paperback
Pages: 270
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0767919378
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.4092
EAN: 9780767919371
ASIN: 0767919378
Publication Date: September 25, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780767919371 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 353
 The Thunderbolt Kid August 8, 2010
Francis W. Chamberand
Typical Bill Bryson - exaggerated humor - laugh out loud funny. Book is a kind of tongue-in-cheek remembrance of growing up in Iowa. Very enjoyable reading
 The 50's July 30, 2010
JerseyGirl (Charlotte, NC)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" and laughed so hard I was crying. I was expecting the same with "The Thunderbolt Kid". However, this is more a reminiscence of life in the Midwest in the 1950's. There were a few funny moments in this book but not nearly as many as a "A Walk in the Woods".
If you are a baby boomer and enjoy reading about growing up in that era, then this book will appeal. There are things here that all of us can enjoy if you are like me, a child of the 1950's.
The author uses the book as a tool for rants against the United States in some of the last chapters. He particularly has great unhappiness with Republicans, the CIA, and Nixon among others.
However, if you like to read about the past and remember some of the good times of the era then this is a fun book; it is just not as laugh out loud funny as "A Walk in the Woods". I did enjoy catching up with Bill Bryson's old friend, Stephen Katz, who accompanied him on his walk in the wood on the Applachian Trail. Since it is not quite as funny as the other book, I chose to give this book 3 stars. I like Bryson best when he is making me laugh.
This Could Be Your Life July 28, 2010
Bobby T (South Riding, VA)
If you grew up in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and even the 80's, and you enjoy reading, you simply MUST read this book. I was born in '68, well after Bill Bryson, and most of which he wrote were things that I experienced as a kid. It made me smile, laugh, and even brought a tear to my eye. For some reason, this book is in my top ten of all time. I loved it that much....
a gut-buster July 16, 2010
Jim (Nor Cal. Humboldt County)
If you were born in the 1950's as I was you really have to read this book. So much that I have forgotten is brought back to vivid life.
I got this with my new kindle, it's the first book I have read on it. A word of warning though, it's a real buster. I'm steal laughing.
cuts across boundaries July 14, 2010
NP (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
I did not grow up in the US neither did I grow up in the 50s. Nevertheless, the book brought back fond memories of childhood. This is a book more about growing up than anything else. A great read.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 353
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