The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A memoir from a non-fiction writer may seem sort of an odd idea. And it is. Doesn’t mean it’s not wonderful.
Author Bill Bryson uses tales of his childhood alter-ego “The Thunderbolt Kid” as a dramatic device to tell long, rich and wonderful anecdotes about growing up in Iowa in the 1950’s. Not a bad conceit, really, and if it helped him to collect these thoughts into a narrative – great. But I found these interludes a little distracting, taking the book away from what is a very detailed and entertaining time capsule.
One of the things I appreciate the most about Bryson’s writing is that it doesn’t really matter what he’s talking about; his ability to humanize situations and provide perspective is the glue that holds his books together. There’s a personal touch to his work even when he’s discussing technical material, but it really shines through in this one. Highly recommended.
[schema type=”book” url=”http://www.billbryson.co.uk/” name=”The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid” 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 middle of the United States in the middle of the last century. A book that delivers on the promise that it is “laugh-out-loud funny.” Some say that the first hints that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came from his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen 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 better. It was obviously the Sacred Jersey of Zap, and proved that he had been placed with this innocuous family in the middle of America to fly, become invisible, shoot guns out of people’s hands from a distance, and wear his underpants over his jeans in the manner of Superman. Bill Bryson’s first travel book opened with the immortal line, “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” In this hilarious new memoir, he travels back to explore the kid he once was and the weird and wonderful world of 1950s America. He modestly claims that this is a book about not very much: about being small and getting much larger slowly. But for the rest of us, it is a laugh-out-loud book that will speak volumes – especially to anyone who has ever been young.” author=”Bill Bryson” publisher=”Broadway Books” pubdate=”2006-10-17″ isbn=”0739315234″ ebook=”yes” paperback=”yes” hardcover=”yes” ]