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Loading... The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (original 2006; edition 2007)by Bill Bryson
Work InformationThe Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson (2006)
  
» 9 more Carole's List (133) Books Read in 2016 (2,588) Books Read in 2021 (4,095) Tour of Iowa (13) Books Set in Iowa (32) No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |  ) cdaley | Nov 2, 2023 | ) Twisk | Oct 2, 2023 | ) mykl-s | Aug 4, 2023 | This book was an amusing look at the 50s, an amusing look at childhood, an amusing look at families, and was a pretty easy read. Not much lost, not much gained. (  ) JayBostwick | Jul 11, 2023 |
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson is a memoir of growing up in Iowa, during the 1950's. The memoir was classic fun and an exploration into memories of growing up in the middle of America in the middle of the twentieth century. The book begins with a panoramic point of view on what the 1950's were about, and then Bryson gets closer and closer into his personal life. He masterfully pens his memories of pranks, jobs, candy, sex, politics, main-street, with a well crafted efficacy. So many memories of growing up in Longmont Colorado in the 1970's bubbled up. A fun listen.  Bill Bryson is erudite, irreverent, funny and exuberant, making the temptation to quote endlessly from The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (Broadway, $25) hard to resist. Bryson interweaves childhood reminiscences seamlessly with observations about 1950s America, evoking a zeitgeist that will be familiar to almost everyone past middle age.  Had he written a purely personal view of his youth and left out the bits explaining how 1950s America was the best country in the world, my chuckles might not so often have given way to groans of annoyance. Is contained inIs abridged in
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 funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his all-American childhood for 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 wearing a jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck, vanquishing evildoers--in his head--as "The Thunderbolt Kid." Using his fantasy-life persona as a springboard, Bryson re-creates the life of his family in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality--a life at once familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy.--From publisher description. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)910.4092History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography and Travel Accounts of travel and facilities for travellersLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.88)
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