Name: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
ISBN: 9780767919364

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Bill Bryson on his most personal journey yet: into his own childhood in America's Mid-West.Some say that the first hint that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came when his mother sent him to school in lime-green Capri pants. Others think it all started with 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 his deeply funny new memoir, he travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, and the curious world of 1950s America. It was a happy time, when almost everything was good for you, including DDT, cigarettes and nuclear fallout. This is a book about growing up in a specific time and place. But in Bryson's hands, it becomes everyone's story, one that will speak volumes – especially to anyone who has ever been young.

What Hacker News says

lostloginApr 2014

For anyone interested, Bill Bryson's "The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid" describes a setup like this too. It's a very funny book as well if anyone is after a good read.

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mdemareNov 2009

She says that the world is safer now for kids than it was when she grew up, but I wonder about that. Precisely because there are so few kids roaming the streets, the ones that still do may be more at risk because e.g. drivers don't expect them.

For a marvellous account of children being raised without any parental guidance, read Bill Bryson's "The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid." Highly recommended.

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dangoldinJul 2008

Have you ever read Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Thunderbolt-Kid-Memoir/dp/0...)?

He talks a good amount of growing up in Des Moines, Iowa where all the kids used to just go out Saturday morning to a nearby field, meet new kids, and spend the entire day there before coming back home to dinner. Right now it seems the kids are too focused on their tvs and computers to go out and actually partake in the backyard baseball games.

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davidroJan 2011

I really enjoy listening to pretty much anything the folks at Full Cast Audio have done; http://www.fullcastaudio.com/

Other than their work i've recently listened to Bill Bryson reading his autobiography, "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid", as well as Malcolm Gladwell reading his book, "Outliers".

I usually listen to the previews in the iTunes music store to get a feel for the narrator.

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