Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Critics

• Face to face with Iowa's bustiest barmaid

  The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson Doubleday £18.99, pp320 You'd have to have a heart of stone to not like Bill Bryson. It's like not liking puppies. Or strawberries. Or Christmas. Particularly Christmas, since what The Life and ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• A boy's tale of comfort and joy

  The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels Through my Childhood by Bill Bryson (Black Swan, £7.99) There is a postcard insert in the middle of this paperback, which has a survey you can fill in, tear out and post. Fifty lucky entrants will wi ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

13 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  I hadn't read any of Bryson's books before and found this one for 84 cents, so I decided maybe it was time. It was interesting, a bit nostalgic for something I am thirty years too young (the 1950s) and too Canadian (Iowa) to remember. Anyway, it was worth the read.

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  Hold Your Spin said on Dec 7, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  This is the best Bryson's book I have reado so far!

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  Balbotta said on Jun 14, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• An eloquent writer he is, this mr. Bryson. His childhood memories are not just interesting to those who grew up in the 50’ and/or in Des Moines. Even if you didn’t, I may bring back memories of way back when, wherever you were.

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  Jw. said on Nov 14, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  What idea has of the Fifties someone born in the Eighties?
  The first thing that pops into my mind is of a perfect family, smiling, in a typical middle-class kitchen, in a typical suburban american neighbourhood.
  Completely disconnected from this idyllic vision there is the idea of the Cold War, and ... (continue)

  What idea has of the Fifties someone born in the Eighties?
  The first thing that pops into my mind is of a perfect family, smiling, in a typical middle-class kitchen, in a typical suburban american neighbourhood.
  Completely disconnected from this idyllic vision there is the idea of the Cold War, and of the Marshall plan in foreign politics.
  What I had no idea of is how this two part of the life of the USA in the 50s could connect and how life actually was, outside the picture perfect advertisements.
  Another thing I did not know was how interesting and enthralling a childhood memoir could be.
  Bill Bryson has written a small masterpiece that taught me all that and a lot more.
  With his humorous narration he often left me sniggering for minutes on end, or outright laughing for his no-nonsense and down to Earth way of recounting even the most absurd scenes and events of chis childhood life.
  Recalling some of those scenes makes me giggle still now.
  A wonderful memoir that made me know an admirable and inventing author.

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  Poyel said on Sep 8, 2011 | Add your feedback

• This is quite a true history, narrating how was life in an American town in Fifties. The fun things is how Bryson narrates his childhood and American way of life in those years, especially with all the differences with modern life. All the book is full of Bryson's humor and you cannont stop laughing ... (continue)

  This is quite a true history, narrating how was life in an American town in Fifties. The fun things is how Bryson narrates his childhood and American way of life in those years, especially with all the differences with modern life. All the book is full of Bryson's humor and you cannont stop laughing or just see things in another way. Ironicing about nuclear weapons, fisrt sexual feelings, food or school is a skiil the author own. Just have a look at your whole life with other eyes and you'll have this book. Of course you have to be Thunderbolt Kid (maybe without vaporizing people) and have to be from Des Moines. Someone had to.

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  etnagigante said on Jul 25, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• A nostalgic visit back to my childhood. Bryson remembers things I'd forgotten, and brought them back to life. A really good book, probably not for everyone.

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  Jim Playford said on Feb 4, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Audio CD
• Edition: New Ed
• ISBN-10: 1846071070
• ISBN-13: 9781846071072
• Publisher: BBC Audiobooks Ltd
• Pub date: Sep 04, 2006
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libros en Español, Libri Italiani

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