Good ambience but lacking a little in style

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	• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir Bill Bryson Doubleday Canada, 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 207 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Another FUN book written by Bill Bryson

I thought Bill Bryson's Walk in the Woods book would go down as my all time favorite books but his new book The life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is giving walk in the woods a run for the money. Thunderbolt Kid is a must for anyone growing up in the 50's 60's. Hilarious reading. I also recommend getting his audio tapes as he narrates the stories with his wit and sarcasm and a dash of his unique accent. Highly recommended and great entertainment.

Humor and Nostalgia

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, particularly since we share the same hometown, High school and familiar places, but in addition to that, the book is hilariously funny and well written.

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Laughed Till I Couldn't Catch My Breath.

In this delightful memoir, Bill Bryson recounts what it was like to grow up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the fifties and early sixties. In retrospect it was a time when Americans reached the zenith of consumer happiness, the peak time of family farming, the fear of communism, and the beginning of the end for small towns and small town businesses. And, while he portrays the period as a more innocent time, it was also a time of great foolishness, insane and fleeting enthusiasms, dangerous pranks and close calls, and the author's first tentative explorations of his sexuality.

Author Bryson writes in an easy, conversational style, ranging from personal anecdotes to social commentary to occasional flights of magic realism. And, he can make you laugh. When he was rhapsodizing about the Dick and Jane readers, I laughed so hard I couldn't catch my breath. Then again, he can also be satirical, cynical, or sad. Beneath the humor he conveys a great sense of loss--for a time of innocence that was not appreciated and will never return.

Thunderbolt Kid is not great literature, but it will certainly make you think and definitely make you laugh. For what it is, I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber

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Good ambience but lacking a little in style

Bill Bryson is a brilliant writer but I just wish he would grow up a little. I've read several of his previous books, such as 'Mother Tongue', and `A Walk in the Woods' and the only thing I can't stand about him is his insistent references to what goes on in the bathroom, mucus, and other yucky stuff, as well as some limited use of seedy language (s-word, f-word, mf-word, etc.). Aside from that, I like everything he writes. Call me a prude if you wish, and tell me to read someone else, and I'd probably agree with you both times. In fact, I broke a (soft) promise to myself by reading this book.

Anyway, that aside, `The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' was a fun read. It brought back the ambience of the 1950's and early 1960's, when post-War optimism knew no limits. The guys were back from soldering and were happily starting families, the economy was booming, new ideas for commercial products to make our lives easier seemed endless, and there were a super abundance of kids running around. Bryson was born in 1951 and was able to soak up much of this environment, and was able to express it about as well as it could be expressed. He laments the changes that have taken place since those more innocent times; it was similar to his lamenting the gradual disappearance of English hedge rows in one of his previous books. He mixes some humorous, personal tall tales with actual facts about the era; it's actually surprising how much research he does for each of his books.

I would have given him 5-stars if he had toned it down a bit.

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Still laughing...and remembering

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I too grew up in Iowa in the Fifties. Memories came rushing back. I too wondered how ducking under my school desk would save me when 'The Bomb' went off. I even forgive Bryson for changing Waterloo TV station KWWL into KWWI... This is my second excursion into Bryson's mind. "A Short History of Nearly Everything" being my first ride. I am on my way to the rest of his books and a full tour. Thank you Bill Bryson.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, page 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

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