Hardcover, 288 pages
English language
Published Oct. 17, 2006 by Broadway.
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is a 2006 memoir by best-selling travel writer Bill Bryson. The book delves into Bryson's past, telling of his youth growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, during the 1950s and early 1960s. It also reveals the backstory between himself and Stephen Katz, who appeared in A Walk in the Woods and "Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe." Bryson also describes and comments on American life in the 1950s. The title of the book comes from an imaginary alter-ego Bryson invented for himself in his childhood, who has the ability to vaporise people.The book was released on September 1, 2006, in the United Kingdom, where it was published by Doubleday. In the United States and Canada, the book was launched on October 17, 2006, and was published by Broadway Books and Doubleday Canada respectively.
I'd read anything by Bill Bryson, he makes me laugh without fail. Even if he wrote out his shopping list I'm sure he'd make it funny, unfortunately this is more or less what he falls back on a bit too often.
The unique circumstances of a fifties american childhood are captured with an alien anthropologist's eye but the lists of products or TV shows I could have done without.
Got this book for Christmas and devoured it in about 3 days. I actually haven't laughed this hard at a book in a long time and, although I'm considerably younger than the author, a lot of things in here really hit home for me in a nostalgic sense.
It may have a little more impact for males, but this book is absolutely fantastic!
Not Bryson's best, but still laugh out loud funny at times
His memoir of growing up in Des Moines in the 1950s. It's beautifully written, and absolutely charming.
