G. Barry Anderson book review

About the book
“The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid”
By Bill Bryson
2006, Broadway Books (2006)
268 pages
$25, hardcover
$14.95, paperback

Bill Bryson, the talented author of many fine best sellers, including “A Walk in the Woods” and “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” has written an equally readable and entertaining, but very different book in “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid,” his personal story of growing up in the 1950s.

Although the book is nominally about the author (who called himself “the Thunderbolt Kid” during a superhero-crazed phase of his childhood, hence the title) growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, it really is about all “boomers” from that era.

I’m a few years younger than Bryson, but it took very little imagination to place his stories in Mankato, where I grew up, and I would bet the same is true for those who claim Hutchinson, Glencoe and Litchfield as hometowns.

Barry Anderson occasionally reviews books for the Hutchinson Leader. Comment on this review, and suggestions for future reviews, can be sent to gbarryanderson@gmail.com. “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid” is available at area bookstores, online and through the Hutchinson Public Library.

To read the entire review, see the print edition of today's Hutchinson Leader (Tuesday, Dec. 18)

(Kay Johnson is a staff writer at the Hutchinson Leader. She can be reached at johnson@hutchinsonleader.com).