The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels through My Childhood

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels through My Childhood

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 23,769 ratings · 2,705 reviews

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 woolen 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 b...more

Paperback, 404 pages

Published 2007 by Black Swan (first published 2006)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

I Will Read Absolutely Anything S/He Writes

82nd out of 503 books — 200 voters

2011: What the Over 35s Have Read So Far

213th out of 1,715 books — 405 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Apr 16, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, history-and-memoir, non-fiction

Bill Bryson's travel writing is often hilarious and usually perceptive. In many ways this book – Bryson’s memoir of growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s and 1960s - is also travel writing. In remembering and sharing his past, Bryson takes his readers to another place and time, both of which he vividly evokes in the narrative.

I laughed a lot while listening to Bryson read the audiobook version of his memoir. At times I laughed so much that there was a risk my bus commute would be embarra...more
Bill Bryson's travel writing is often hilarious and usually perceptive. In many ways this book – Bryson’s memoir of growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s and 1960s - is also travel writing. In remembering and sharing his past, Bryson takes his readers to another place and time, both of which he vividly evokes in the narrative.

I laughed a lot while listening to Bryson read the audiobook version of his memoir. At times I laughed so much that there was a risk my bus commute would be embarrassing and my driving commute would be dangerous. Bryson has a wonderful ability to find the ridiculous in most situations, as well as in himself, his family and everyone around him. He also has the gift of humorous exaggeration: some of the incidents he writes about are clearly tall tales, or at least tales that have been stretched for effect.

This is not just a memoir, it is also a domestic history of the United States of the 1950s and 1960s: a limited history, it is true, of white Middle America, but an interesting history nevertheless. While Bryson has unashamed nostalgia for some aspects of that history, his criticism of other aspects of US history is pointed.

I’m younger than Bryson (although by less than a decade) and I grew up far from Des Moines. My childhood was in almost all respects quite different from Bryson’s. Nevertheless, his childhood experiences – particularly the experiences of his early childhood – speak to me. In recounting his history, Bryson has the ability to get readers to reflect on their own past. It may be that some early childhood experiences are universal – for example, first days at school and relationships with siblings and friends. For me, Bryson's early childhood experiences are the most interesting part of that part of the books which is a personal memoir. It is fair to say that I found the last part of the book, which deals with Bryson’s teenage years, less engaging than the rest of it. Even though I have sons of my own, I find the shenanigans of teenage boys of limited interest, particularly when those shenanigans involve (view spoiler). One thing that struck me about Bryson’s discussion of high school was his take on relationships between white and African American students. I have no doubt that Bryson is sincere when he states that he did not witness racist behaviour. However, I wonder whether his African American high school contemporaries would share that view.

Overall, listening to this audiobook was a great way to spend a few hours. Funny and at times moving, it is more than a series of anecdotes. In a relatively brief book, Bryson manages to cover a lot of territory, from family holidays, to parental eccentricities, to 1950s toys, to cigarette advertising, to atomic testing, to the building of Disneyland … and lots more.
(less)

18 likes · like · see review

Mar 29, 2008 Tom Carrico rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Book Review

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
By Bill Bryson

Reviewed by Tom Carrico

I am not usually one to enjoy a memoir. There always seems to be a certain smugness that someone must possess to have the audacity to think that their story is better than, well, mine. This memoir, however, is different. Bill Bryson’s childhood ruminations could belong to anybody who grew up in the 1950s. Change Des Moines, Iowa to Arlington, Virginia and this story could even be mine. If you are under 40 yo...more Book Review

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
By Bill Bryson

Reviewed by Tom Carrico

I am not usually one to enjoy a memoir. There always seems to be a certain smugness that someone must possess to have the audacity to think that their story is better than, well, mine. This memoir, however, is different. Bill Bryson’s childhood ruminations could belong to anybody who grew up in the 1950s. Change Des Moines, Iowa to Arlington, Virginia and this story could even be mine. If you are under 40 you probably won’t enjoy this book as much as those of us who actually endured this particular decade. This book reads like a “Saturday Night Live” send-up of David Halberstam’s The Fifties. Like Halberstam, Bryson touches on the many social and cultural events and changes of the 1950s including the space race, the development of the nuclear bomb, the evolution of the suburbs coupled with the decline of the inner cities and the emergence of television. This author, however, takes great pride in pointing out the absurdities and ironic inconsistencies of that era. He describes his refusal to participate in the required civil defense drills, pointing out to his elementary school teacher the absolute irrationality of thinking that crawling under a desk could protect a child from a nuclear explosion. I remember thinking these same thoughts as I toted bottled water and canned goods to St. Ann’s School in Arlington which happened to be three miles from the Pentagon. Unlike Bill Bryson, I did get under the desk when told to. I feared for my life, not from an A-bomb, but from the wrath of Sister Mary Angelus.

The author was able to jog my feeble memory about certain items which are long gone. In one hilarious segment he describes the cumbersome winter boots we all had. Bill Bryson claims that the clasps, which required an incredible dexterity to fasten, were actually made from razor blades. He is equally as funny when describing how kids passed their time during the fifties. He explains that parents would kick the kids outdoors in the early morning and not expect to see them again until dinner time. The ridiculous toys of the era are recalled in great detail. The authors favorites were Lincoln Logs (where the box shows all of these great forts and structures and the contents are only enough to construct a small hut with one window), erector sets and electric football. It is hard to imagine in this day of Xbox and Playstation that electric football ever existed. I actually had two of these sets, one a hand-me-down from my cousin Mike. The author wryly and accurately describes setting up the players on the metal “field” and turning on the electricity which caused the field to vibrate and all of the plastic players to fall over or migrate towards the wrong goal line. There is also an awesome description of the complete disaster which was constructing plastic model airplane kits.

The name of the book comes from the author’s fascination with comic book heroes. He constructed his own alter-ego and named him Thunderbolt Kid. He imagined his super powers and practiced making teachers and principals disappear.

The greatest segments of Thunderbolt are when Bill Bryson recalls the early days of television. He muses over the physical differences between the comic book Superman and the flabby television version. He fondly recalls the Sky King show (and how Sky would fly around endlessly in his airplane for no particular reason) and his crush on Sky’s niece Penny. Tell the truth: didn’t we all have a crush on Penny? He also points out that television cowboys in the 50s never really shot anybody. They shot AT people, for sure, but usually just shot guns out of the bad guys’ hands or shot their hats off. Yes, it was a different era.

The television anecdote that evoked the most vivid memory for me was his description of how Walt Disney used his television show to make every kid in America dream of going to Disneyland in Anaheim. For you youngsters, this was when Orlando was still a backwater town and Disney World didn’t exist. Bill Bryson’s family finally went and, by golly, so did mine. My sister and her husband moved to California in the sixties and I remember going to visit them and getting to go to Disneyland. I was about twelve or thirteen, I guess, and I remember standing on Main Street and looking at Cinderella’s Castle in absolute awe. They gave you a book of coupons on admission in those days when you paid to get in. The coupons had different values and colors and the E coupons were the good ones (for the Matterhorn ride and Space Mountain). I remember not wanting to use the last E coupon because then it would be time to leave.

There are some serious moments here as well. Mr. Bryson notes that with the passage of time the family farm has basically disappeared from the American landscape. He also regrets the loss of the supreme optimism and sense of innocence which pervaded America in the 1950s.

This is a must read for anyone born before 1955. For you youngsters, this book may help you understand why we boomers are as odd as we are. One warning, though: there are segments that are so funny you want to stop and tell everyone around you about them.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson is available in trade paperback from Broadway Books publishers.
(less)

12 likes · like · see review

Apr 19, 2007 Drew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys humor and Americana

I'm a big fan of Bill Bryson's writing, but this one was both uplifting and saddening at the same time. The premise of the book is how Bill learned to see a country be wooed by the siren song of prosperity through the guise of his own internal superhero persona, the Thunderbolt Kid. This is an engaging book which takes the reader back to simpler times, with plenty of Bryson's characteristic laugh-out-loud funny moments to go around. The Thunderbolt Kid persona is really a subtitle to the main id...more

25 likes · like · see review

Jul 27, 2012 Gary McTiernan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bill Bryson makes magic in this heartfelt memoir about his childhood in Iowa in the 1950's. His take on the forces which shaped American life mid-century, in the middle of the country, is spot-on hilarious. Exaggerating the ordinary and reveling in the extraordinary, he offers up an unforgettable depiction of the decade that shaped modern America. For all its innocence, the cultural landscape was shifting inexorably, driven by the explosion of television

and the preponderance of the automobile....more

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 29, 2007 Erin added it · review of another edition

the bloody head-bashing-in-story.

that was the critical turning point in the novel-reading for me, personally. the moment i realized bill bryson is a comedic wonderchild. the moment i was simultaneously overjoyed to have discovered him as a writer and depressed i wasted so much time trying to pretend erma bombeck could truly capture the lasting effects of one's childhood experiences with sex ed. the moment i spit an unhealthy mixture of sprite and airline peanuts all over the back of a poor old l...more

10 likes · like · see review

Jan 08, 2008 Rodger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is a must read for anyone who grew up in the fifties and sixties. He captures life in the fifties and early sixties through the lens of a pre-teen boy. Though he grew up in one of Iowa's larger cities and I grew up in a small New Mexico town, the experiences are very similiar.

Be ready to laugh out loud, but beware, he uses some language that I would have been given the old "Wash your mouth out with soap" treatment.

5 likes · like · see review

Jun 11, 2008 Joey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Iowans of a certain age.

This is the first book I've read by Bryson and I do intend to read a couple more.

The Thunderbolt Kid is wildly funny, a simple memoir of Bryson's childhood in Des Moines in the 1950s. Oddly enough, change comes slowly to Iowa and I could relate to much of his experience and sentiment having spent my own Iowa childhood in the 1960s.

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 08, 2008 Michael Endo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who like Bill Bryson and/or the 50's

Even though this is a memoir it is difficult not to think about it in the context of other superhero/childhood stories. Kavalier and Clay and Fortress of Solitude come to mind. Among these books the Thunderbold Kid falls flat.
The image Bryson paints of the fifties is truly magnificent. He really captures the excitement of the beginning of the space age. It is when he is elaborating on this time that I am captivated, but when he speaks specifically about his own life I get a little bored. His l...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 01, 2008 Trish rated it 5 of 5 stars

Bill Bryson admits that “this book is a book about not very much: about being small and getting larger slowly.” So, there aren’t any accounts of overcoming tragic circumstances in this memoir. What you will find in The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is a laugh-out-loud look at growing up in 1950s Des Moines, Iowa.

Although aimed at baby boomers, anyone can appreciate Bryson’s wise-cracking observations and heart-warming nostalgia over more simple times. The way he interweaves references fr...more

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 08, 2007 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: plain_vanilla

To celebrate a weekend that was generally quite un-pleasurable, today I finished 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', which I had picked up at the airport (I know). It did do nothing much to humour me.
Really, I give Bryson that his father was a very good sports writer, even the short paragraphs of his work that the book features show that (I keep repeating to myself 'the lordly Yankees') , but Bryson himself? 'Laugh-out-loud'? Not that I would have noticed....anyway...in one paragraph wh...more To celebrate a weekend that was generally quite un-pleasurable, today I finished 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', which I had picked up at the airport (I know). It did do nothing much to humour me.
Really, I give Bryson that his father was a very good sports writer, even the short paragraphs of his work that the book features show that (I keep repeating to myself 'the lordly Yankees') , but Bryson himself? 'Laugh-out-loud'? Not that I would have noticed....anyway...in one paragraph which proves to be interesting after all, Bill Bryson recounts his missing out on his paper route, because he was too bogged down in private fantasies; one of which was, how 'Bizarro world' would work.
'Bizarro World was a planet that featured in some issues of Superman Comics. The inhabitants of Bizarro World did everything in reverse - walked backwards, drove backwards, switched televisions off when thy wanted to watch and on when they didn't, drove through red lights but stopped at green ones, and so on. Bizarro World bothered me enormously because it was so impossibly inconsistent. The people didn't actually speak backwards,but just talked in a kind of primitive cave man 'me no like him' type of English, which was not the same thing at all. Anyway, living backwards simply couldn't be made to work. At the gas station they would habe to take fuel out of their cars rather than put it in, so how would they make their cars go? Eating meals would mean sucking poo up through their anus, sending it through the body and ejecting it in mouth-sized lumps on to forks and spoons. It wouldn't be satisfactury at all.'
Of course, I didn't think that all this couldn't be make to work, but rather sided with Willoughby, Bryson's more brainy friend. Since all laws of science would have to be reversed as well, there would be no primes any more.
One place where all of this is perfectly envisioned is 'PIXY' by Max Andersson, one of the best comic books I've ever known.
In the realm of the dead, Andersson shows the people to live backwards, and, what shall I say - they eject mouth-sized lumps on their forks and spoons (mercifully, one is spared the 'sucking up' part).
So there I was, at my ease, considering what it would be like for the time to go backward, through heartbreak and love to a time of innocence.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 19, 2008 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: a-favorite-read, audio-books-read

My son has been raving about Bill Bryson's for some time now, but I was not sure that they would appeal to me. After hearing others rave about his memoir: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, I thought this might be a fun audio book. I am sorry I waited so long to try Bryson's work.

This memoir was terrific. It leaves you with a feeling of appreciation for the simple things in life. Bill Bryson and I were born a year apart, and as baby boomers growing up in the 50's and 60's, I found this m...more

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 07, 2007 ANDY rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone

I really enjoyed this book. Not because it was a brilliant piece of writing, but because it did for me what any good book should do: made me feel something.

I felt good. I had a smile on my face. I really long for a simpler life and the picture Bryson painted of his childhood in Iowa had me feeling as if I was there with him and also helped me reminisce about some memories from my childhood I cherish.

Bryson’s writing style is at times all over the place, darting from one subject to the next, but...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 07, 2007 Sri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-memoir

I love it. Mr Bill brought out his memory as a kid growing up in Des Moines, a peaceful city in Iowa, on 50's. Beside his own memory I believe he used many archives as his references so he could describe that era and the place so detailed.
50's in America is the age of dream. It's so funny, as Mr Bill said, "Never have people looked so ridiculous and so happy at the same time."
I like Mr Bill's parent. His mom was wonderful, very forgetful but very lovable as well. His dad, he was a brilliant jour...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 15, 2009 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: my Dad

Shelves: book-club, 2009, memoirs, bill_bryson

I really enjoyed this book quite a bit. It was fun to read about life in the 50's for Bill and make parallels to my own childhood in a small town in the midwest. I laughed out loud many times and nodded my head a bunch of times.

One of my favorite parts is when Bill's mom convinces him to go to school in his sister's pants - lime green capri pants! She told him they were pirate pants. Very funny.

This was a very enjoyable read and I look forward to reading his other books.

2 likes · like · see review

view all 5 comments

Beth F. No kidding...it doesn't help that we haven't been home for three weekends in a row and that the only thing I can motivate myself to do anymore is take...more
updated Apr 10, 2009 05:47pm

Jennifer Sleep is good for you. Plus in about 7 1/2 months you will be getting none - so suck it in while you can! ;)

At least you have pregnancy for an excuse...more
Apr 11, 2009 09:53am

Jul 31, 2007 Alicia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bill Bryson is best suited for travel writing, where his crotchety personality shines through and assures us that the act of traveling is not always as romantic as Kerouac would have you believe-in other words, its ok to go through hell before you start to have a good time. His memoirs are good because he is funny and disparaging and all that Bryson is supposed to be, but the preachiness regarding the decline of small-town middle America is a bit much. You can't quite avoid the feeling that he w...more

4 likes · like · see review

Sep 12, 2007 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bill Bryson is hilarious. This, his latest work and his memoirs of his formative years in Iowa, is just as good as any of his travel writing. I learned a lot about what life must've been like for my parents, who are of his generation and who also grew up in the midwest. I was especially fascinated with Bryson's nostalgic-but-not-too-nostalgic take on the social and cultural trends of the time, and I learned a lot about how cavalier the US was about atomic testing back then. o.O So yeah. Great re...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 02, 2012 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

They say you can't go home again. They're wrong. Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of Thunderbolt Kid brought me home to Plainview which was planted over toxic potato fields in the 1950's. The neighborhood, school, movie theaters, childhood freedom, parental naivete, the boogers, the ingenius boys who blew things up, and even the guidance counselor, who, in my case didn't see the need for me to take chemistry and pushed for stenography, rang so true. I also remember the excitement of the first We...more

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 12, 2009 Duane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although I've never been a fan of memoirs and autobiographies, a friend suggested I try this one and I'm grateful they did. Billy Bryson's wonderful writing style takes you away from modern day and transports you to the idealic 50's in such a magical way it's haunting. Having not grown up back then but knowing some about it, hearing his memories of growing up back then makes me want so badly to find someway to go and see if for myself. Great writing should make you forget your world and take you...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 03, 2009 thefourthvine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biographies-autobiographies-memoirs, kindle

Bill Bryson is always fun, and his switch from travel memoirs to autobiography isn't really much of a switch at all - this book is a natural for him. But it will never be my favorite of his works.

That said, the book is good. Bryson's work is all about the narrative voice, and he's right at the peak of his ability here; he's honed and developed his voice and his style, but he hasn't reached what we might call the Dave Barry point, the place where a writer's current work becomes a caricature of h...more Bill Bryson is always fun, and his switch from travel memoirs to autobiography isn't really much of a switch at all - this book is a natural for him. But it will never be my favorite of his works.

That said, the book is good. Bryson's work is all about the narrative voice, and he's right at the peak of his ability here; he's honed and developed his voice and his style, but he hasn't reached what we might call the Dave Barry point, the place where a writer's current work becomes a caricature of his older, better work. So, for the sheer craft of it, this book is a great read. It's funny, it's light, it's fast.

Unfortunately, Bryson falls into basically every trap that waits for an autobiographer. He persistently mourns all the changes that have taken place since the '50s - oh noes! The world is different! And I remember liking the old things, therefore all this change is bad! He doesn't get that he remembers things as being shiny and golden because he had a happy childhood. Things look fabulous through a nostalgic lens, and it's the lens that matters, not the things themselves. If he'd had that same happy childhood in the 1900s, he'd be mourning the introduction of cars and women's suffrage.

Which is the other problem. Bryson was privileged, and he seems to have missed that - sure, he writes about McCarthyism and racism, but he doesn't seem to understand that his own perfect, shiny childhood was largely a result of his own privilege - and other people's lack of privilege.

Just in general, the section dealing with race is painful to read; he says he never heard anyone say anything racist (except his grandmother) even as he spouts every possible racist stereotype about the blacks who attended his high school. It's pretty clear that he doesn't really understand that racism is more than shooting blacks who try to vote. (And I'm not going to go into the sexism, largely because I suspect any honest memoir of a teenaged boy is going to be, well, hugely sexist.)

So, while this is a fun book to read, it's also uncomfortable in places - the places where Bryson exposes much more of himself than he intended to.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 30, 2008 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

My father was born in 1948 in Edmonton (although he was loth to admit it), and he spent his childhood in a number of small towns in southern Alberta and British Columbia. I didn't ask him nearly enough about his childhood before he passed away, and I hold on to those few reminiscences of his that I remember as emblematic of a childhood spent raucously and well: putting on cardboard armor and shooting BB guns at his friends; his class spontaneously standing in two long lines in the schoolyard, th...more My father was born in 1948 in Edmonton (although he was loth to admit it), and he spent his childhood in a number of small towns in southern Alberta and British Columbia. I didn't ask him nearly enough about his childhood before he passed away, and I hold on to those few reminiscences of his that I remember as emblematic of a childhood spent raucously and well: putting on cardboard armor and shooting BB guns at his friends; his class spontaneously standing in two long lines in the schoolyard, throwing paint-can lids as makeshift frisbees; him and his brother riding on a float in a local parade to promote the dairy where my grandfather worked; sitting on the hood of his parents' car, watching Sputnik go by overhead. It was a different time.

Much later - after he'd left Alberta, done his graduate work, joined the foreign service, had his own kids, served his country abroad - he discovered Bill Bryson. My mother can attest that Bryson's books did to my father what they've done to so many of his readers: prompted repeated, deep, bed-shaking bouts of laughter as he read just one more chapter before turning out the light. My dad, posted to Ireland and later to England, shared Bryson's tender love for the out-and-out wackyness of the British isles; he also shared Bryson's affection for the troubled, starry eyed and strident nation that is the United States.

I inherited a lot from my father, including his taste for Bryson. While originally most well known for his travel writing, the two-time American ex-patriot has gained a second fame recently for his critically and professionally acclaimed A Short History of Nearly Everything , a marvelous intellectual history of science. Bryson won't gain much attention for The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and perhaps that's inevitable. But it's also a shame, because Thunderbolt Kid is a remarkably successful social history of life in America in the 1950s.

The received wisdom today, fed by Hollywood and the baby boom generation, is that the 1950s were a repressive and tyrannical period, an interlude between the creation of universal opportunity at the end of the Second World War and the realization of that opportunity in the Summer of Love of 1968. Today "The Fifties" either means McCarthyism and blacklisting, or James Dean and Grease - the latter two being romanticized glorifications of rebel youths who prefigured the anti-establishment ethos of the boomers.

But one of these portrayals is incomplete, and the other is simply false. McCarthyism was undeniably a part of the 1950s - but far from defining the era, it was simply one manifestation of an infinitely complex cultural reality, one in which there really were communists, and they really were trying to subvert the government; one in which science really was changing the way Americans lived their lives, and cars really were changing the face of the American landscape, and people really did hope, and expect, that the future, just around the corner, would bring peace and prosperity and flying cars - just as long as it didn't bring nuclear war and annihilation first.

Bryson explores all of these themes; but he explores them through the eyes of the child that he was. And more importantly, he explores them through the eyes of a normal American, one who lit firecrackers and skipped class and snuck smokes in high school - just like all his friends, because that's what kids do, and not because he wanted to show The Man what was what.

Of course Bryson augments his personal anecdotes with a characteristically well researched and thoughtfully constructed social history of the era, using his own experiences and those pulled from contemporary newspaper and magazine accounts to contextualize the social changes that are too often caricatured today. And through Bryson's eyes we get a sense of life in America in the 1950s that's a thousand times as complex, and a thousand times as compelling than a thousand earnest films about censorship and blacklists and closet homosexuals and miserable wives.

Because Bryson's Fifties are the real thing; they are what he lived, and what most - including my father - lived. They were neither perfect nor imperfect; neither a movement in their own right nor a standard to be rebelled against. But it is impossible to come away from Thunderbolt Kid without thinking, as Bryson quite obviously does, that there was something special about the Fifties; that, perhaps for the last time in our recent history, growing up in the Fifties meant growing up with a sense of wonder, and of possibility, and without cynicism; and that the loss of that is hardly worth whatever we've gained instead.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 02, 2008 Suede rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who has heard the same fact on page 223

I'll admit, this 5 star rating is a bit inflated.

I love Bill Bryson, although some of his books are much stronger than others. Because he's Bryson, he automatically gets a star.

The Thunderbolt Kid is not one of his best works. It's an interesting read about growing up in the 1950, and he tells little tidbits about his life, family and friends. He jumps around a lot in this book. I think he used the Thunderbolt Kid is his way of pulling all his different topics together...but it really doesn't w...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 29, 2007 Teddy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Nostalgia Look Back to the 1950’s

This is the first Bill Bryson book I have read, but certainly not the last!

Bryson takes a hilarious trip down memory lane. He mixes in his childhood memories of Iowa, historical facts, and adds his own character, The Thunderbolt Kid. It’s a recipe for a fun filled ride with belly laughs and nostalgia.

This is a great book for baby boomers, but I think the younger generations will enjoy it as well. He writes of a less serious time in U. S. history. At time that...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 02, 2007 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who loves sarcasm and making fun of stupid people

Shelves: audiobook, nonfiction, november2007, memoirs

This is pretty funny so far.

I have a slight complaint and question about the audio version though. The author is narrating, and doesn't speak the clearest. And it's odd that he says certain words the British way (like al-yoo-MIN-eeum foil), give that he grew up like Beaver Cleaver (ok, just figured out he spent 20 years in England!). Though there is always something appealing to me about the author narrating. Never a question that someone else is misunderstanding their meaning, where the emphasi...more

1 like · like · see review

May 01, 2011 Adam Oline rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: iowa-related

Interesting and hilarious recollection of Bill Bryson's childhood growing up in Des Moines, IA. It's interesting to see what life was like in Iowa's capital city back in the 50's and 60's, and while the author laments how things have changed in recent decades with the explosion of malls and other attractions in the suburbs at the expense of downtown shopping, it's good to see how Des Moines has encouraged development of the downtown East Village and Court Avenue areas of the city in ways the enc...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 03, 2008 Jeanette rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anybody with a funny bone!

Shelves: biography-memoir, giggles, audio, nonfiction, five-star-nonfiction

I listened to this on CD, read by the author, so of course it was wonderful. I'll definitely be seeking it out in print at some point. Things go by so fast on audio that you can't go back and re-enjoy the really good parts.

Even if you don't give a rodent's posterior about Iowa, this book is thoroughly enjoyable. Bryson is hilarious while at the same time providing a lot of interesting historical things about the 1950s and 60s, both the good and the bad. He really tells a great story about his o...more

5 likes · like · see review

Feb 04, 2011 Connie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm about half-way through this book, and I LOVE it! Every time I sit down with it, I laugh out loud at some point. It probably helps that I grew up in the same years/city in which this story takes place, but some of the writing is just so funny. I borrowed this book from Jennifer, but I'm going to have to own it myself. It's a keeper! Finished this book and LOVED it!

1 like · like · see review

Mar 05, 2009 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought this book was lots of fun that captures the magic of childhood. The author grew up in the 50s so it was fun to ask my mom about how her childhood compared, but I also saw parallels to my own childhood. Kids will be kids regardless of the decade. :) Fun, fun read.

For instance -- In one section of the book, Bryson talks about Lincoln Logs. He and his friend experimented with the toys by peeing on them only to discover that this turned the logs white. They made the first "albino" log cabi...more

like · see review

Jan 17, 2009 Katrina marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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...more

like · see review

Jan 03, 2009 Discoverylover marked it as to-read · review of another edition

"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 g...more "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."(less)

like · see review

Apr 13, 2013 Anirban rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites, bio-autobigraphy

“Making a man laugh is tougher than making him cry”
1. I was depressed, my life was going nowhere and then I read Bill Bryson.
2. I was not passing my exams, I was depressed and then I read Bill Bryson.
3. I was still single and depressed, and then I read Bill Bryson.

So, finally I did read Bill Bryson. And, now that I have, I can safely say divide my reading life into two parts,
1. Before I had read Bill Bryson
2. After I had read Bill Bryson.
The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid, describes...more “Making a man laugh is tougher than making him cry”
1. I was depressed, my life was going nowhere and then I read Bill Bryson.
2. I was not passing my exams, I was depressed and then I read Bill Bryson.
3. I was still single and depressed, and then I read Bill Bryson.

So, finally I did read Bill Bryson. And, now that I have, I can safely say divide my reading life into two parts,
1. Before I had read Bill Bryson
2. After I had read Bill Bryson.
The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid, describes the growing up years of Bill Bryson, in the 1950s, in the city of Des Moines, Iowa.

Generally I tend to stay away from non-fiction but Goodreads had long ago recommended Bryson to me. But his books were so costly that I never came around to buy them. So when I found his books at a used book store, I could not help but grab them.

Since I was not born in 1950s, my dad was born in 1950s, but not in Iowa instead in Rajasthan in India, I took every fact and incident stated in the book at its face value, and laughed out loud, only to stop, so that I can move on to the next paragraph.

This book was one of the funniest books I have read. The way Bryson describes the events of his childhood, though at times leaving me scared (especially the ingenious yet scary endeavours of Doug Willoughby, the treatment of Milton Milton among others), made me laugh without any restraint and move forward with the book.

The book was a fast read. Though it was outside my comfort reading zone of small paragraphs, the prose never slowed down the book. Such was the power of the Thunderbolt Kid. From Chapter 1, Bryson converted his autobiography into an adventure. Oh! I forgot, his was the adventure of the Thunderbolt Kid, the son of King Volton.

And what descriptions!!! From Bizzaro world to Dewey the dog, to strippers tent at the Iowa State Fair or putting one’s hat into another’s hatbox. Perfect words for the appropriate events.And, the last chapter. Oh! The last chapter. Seldom had I read something that had made me this sad. His friendship with Jed Mattes, his search for the city of his youth or even the retirement of the Thunderbolt Kid.

Truly a master writer, who made me laugh throughout the book, only to make me realise that at the end, most laughter are born to shield the deepest sorrows!!(less)

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Literazzi: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid	5	6	Apr 12, 2012 04:45pm

combine
Other Editions (45)

More editions...

Videos About This Book

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

Add a comment

Genres

Non Fiction

589 users

Autobiography > Memoir

342 users

Biography

264 users

Humor

246 users

Biography > Autobiography

67 users

Book Club

60 users

Biography Memoir

47 users

History

44 users

Humor > Funny

40 users

Travel

38 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He settled in England in 1977, and worked in journalism until he became a full time writer. He lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He and his family then moved to New Hampshire in America for a few years, but they have now returned to live in the UK.
In The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson's hilarious first t...more

More about Bill Bryson...

Books by Bill Bryson

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Life and Time...

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Life and Times of ...

“It was an especially wonderful time to be a noisy moron.” — 5 people liked it

“It’s a bit burned,” my mother would say apologetically at every meal, presenting you with a piece of meat that looked like something — a much-loved pet perhaps — salvaged from a tragic house fire. “But I think I scraped off most of the burned part,” she would add, overlooking that this included every bit of it that had once been flesh.

Happily, all this suited my father. His palate only responded to two tastes - burned and ice cream — so everything suited him so long as it was sufficiently dark and not too startlingly flavorful. Theirs truly was a marriage made in heaven, for no one could burn food like my mother or eat it like my dad.” — 2 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels through My Childhood
avg rating	preview: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels through My Childhood Goodreads rating: 3.88 (23769 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/849047.The_Life_and_Times_of_the_Thunderbolt_Kid?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347747304l/849047.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/849047.The_Life_and_Times_of_the_Thunderbolt_Kid?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels through My Childhood by Bill Bryson[/url]

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels through My Childhood

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website