The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
by Bill Bryson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bill BrysonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-17
ISBN: 076791936X
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Broadway
Book Reviews of The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
Book Review: Life in the Fabulous Fifties Was Good.
Summary: 4 Stars
This erudite, funny writer hit the nail on the head for me as he contemplates and reminisces about growing up in the Fifties. I swore to a local journalist that it was good then, but he disagreed -- but then, he was born in 1958, so what did he know! Just that the town here was dry and Alcohol was not plentiful in public places! So what? It was a wonderful time to grow up in my hometown. Things were easy for the
poor and rich, as we were equal in the talent contests and given a chance with or without a mother there pushing for her kid. Dean Martin was one of the best singers, but Eddie Fisher was my singer and I was president of "The Fisher Notes." I wrote a review of his latest memoir which is not NTA, meaning no one can read or vote one way or the other. Life in Des Moines was much different from Knoxville in the '50s. I was never a superhero, though I had some on radio serials and Superman on TV. The cowboys were my heroes. I loved Lash LaRue. My son Zach was Batman as a child complete with mask, cape and black costume. Children have their fantasies.
In 1951, almost ninety percent of American families had the appliances we take for granted but were hard to get back then. Americans owned 80 percent of the world's electrical goods (my dad had the first t.v. set in the neighborhood). The five percent of people on Earth who were Americans had more wealth than the other 95 percent combined. In Sequoyah where the rich people lived, they had deliverers of hard spirits and did not have to go to liquor stores.
Here, we have Bill pretending to be The Thunderbolt Kid, his alter-ego, dressed in an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on the front. It's good that he has such a wonderful sense of humor and doesn't take things personally and is not reticient to be "fooled." He was a normal boy growing up as I did in a world of make-believe on televison and at the movies. He can have the last laugh with the book selling for $25+tax each. My aim was to be a famous singer and so, when not going to the movies, I went from talent show (Knoxville was big on those back then), first on the radio, then grafitated to Bob Lobertini's "Stars of Tomorrow" on to Bill Ross' "Teen Time" on the stage of the Tennessee Theater simulcast on his radio station. I was know, even received one fan letter. Nuclear weapons were being develoiped in my back door and we elementary students had to wear soldiers' dog tags in case of a mistake at Oak Ridge. Foolishly, I gave mine away to someone I trusted to prove we did such (he grew up in Oak Ridge and they didn't have to); he threw mine away as so much garbage as it wasn't what he could believe since he had not experienced such himself and he was nearest the bomb making.
Being from a newspaper writing family, Bill had a good youth, then followed in their footsteps. Our major emphasis in the Fifties was music and not superheroes. The men here were so obstinant, there were no local heroes. Marshal Andy came here later on from North Carolina. We weren't aware of our local history or their escapades, the bank robbers, killings, shoot-out drunks, railroad men cavorting with ladies of the night. I can't imagine there has ever been a more gratifying time or place to be alive than America in the 1950s.
We had things that only the rest of the world fantasized about. No country has ever known such prosperity. Here, the poor were as important as the rich if they had musical innate talent. Most of us were never professionally trained. It just came naturally. This book may not mean the same for "each and anyone who has ever been young," but it is a delight to those of us who grew up back then, although part of the country apart in another place and aura.
He tells us about Stephen Katz. "The thing about Katz was that he depended on alcohol because he needed it" There were four districution companies, all in brick depots in a quiet quarter at the edge of downtown where the railroad tracks ran through (like Knoxville). Katz noticed that the railroad depots had no security and that boxcars stood on sidings beside the depots, particularly on weekends. He and two accomplices broke open the padlock on one boxcar and stole a lot of beer, which they conveniently hid in the basement. They emptied the boxcar which lasted them three months. They kept this up for a time. It was the biggest heist in Des Moines, and all perpetrated by kids from good families. Eventually, they were detected, and someone had to take the rap. Stephen Katz was sent to reform school for two years after being charged with grand theft, a felony. "YOu just can't let every guilty person go of what kind of criminal justice system would you have, for goodness sake?" I have a true, fantastic story of injustice to impart but why re-live painful events if there is no way to be published. In 2002, I wrote a "He Said, She Said" account using actual emails to and from an older woman and a young writer. But it flounders in my box of memories and lost loves.
Bill Bryson is one of my favorite people who is sharing his life's experiences with those of us who don't have the connections to get published. He is fascinating; he is interesting. It's sad he went back to England (it's true: "You can't come home again" and he admitted it.) After all, England swings. America fights. He gives us a good look at bygone days with a touch of nostalgia for times long gone. It was fun.
Summary of The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
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 1950s
Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century?1951?in the middle of the United States?Des Moines, Iowa?in the middle of the largest generation in American history?the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons)?in his head?as "The Thunderbolt Kid."
Using this persona as a springboard, Bill Bryson re-creates the life of his family and his native city in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality?a life at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. It was, he reminds us, a happy time, when automobiles and televisions and appliances (not to mention nuclear weapons) grew larger and more numerous with each passing year, and DDT, cigarettes, and the fallout from atmospheric testing were considered harmless or even good for you. He brings us into the life of his loving but eccentric family, including affectionate portraits of his father, a gifted sportswriter for the local paper and dedicated practitioner of isometric exercises, and OF his mother, whose job as the home furnishing editor for the same paper left her little time for practicing the domestic arts at home. The many readers of Bill Bryson?s earlier classic, A Walk in the Woods, will greet the reappearance in these pages of the immortal Stephen Katz, seen hijacking literally boxcar loads of beer. He is joined in the Bryson gallery of immortal characters by the demonically clever Willoughby brothers, who apply their scientific skills and can-do attitude to gleefully destructive ends.
Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of his inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is as wondrous a book as Bill Bryson has ever written. It will enchant anyone who has ever been young.
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