From one of our most beloved and bestselling authors, a vivid,
nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the 1950s.
Born in 1951 in the middle of the United States, Des Moines, Iowa,
Bill Bryson is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a
totally all-American childhood for 24 carat memoir gold. Like
millions of his generation, Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life
as a superhero. In his case, he ran around the house wearing a
jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel round his neck that
served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and
vanquishing evildoers (in his head) as The Thunderbolt Kid. Using
his childhood fantasy life as a springboard, Bill Bryson recreates
the life of his family in the 1950s in all its transcendent
normality. In a period that saw the inexorable rise of television,
the opening of Disneyland, the testing of the atomic bomb, and the
explosion of choice in everything from food to cars, Bill Bryson's
days followed in reassuringly cosy succession, enlivened by modest
triumphs and disasters. Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, The Rise and
Fall of the Thunderbolt Kid is a modern classic, full of Bill
Bryson's inimitable, pitch-perfect observations.
...........................................................................................................................................
'Seriously funny' The Sunday Times 'A funny, effortlessly readable,
quietly enchanted memoir' Daily Mail 'A wittily incisive book about
innocence, and its limits, but in no sense an innocent book... Like
Alan Bennett, another ironist posing as a sentimentalist, Bryson
can play the teddy-bear and then deliver a sudden, grizzly-style
swipe' Independent 'Outlandishly and improbably entertaining...
inevitably [I] would be reduced to body-racking, tear-inducing,
de-couching laughter' New York Times 'Characteristic mixture of
bemused wit, acerbic astonishment and sweet benevolence... His
evocation of an era is near perfect: tender, hilarious and true'
The Times
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!