The Thunderbolt Kid is the superhero Bill Bryson liked to imagine himself as when he was growing up in Des Moines, Iowa in the 1950s. The kid’s life and times is a laugh-out-loud book about Bryson’s growing up years seasoned with a few bittersweet reflections on what Americans have lost since then, notably our freedom from fear and ability to have fun. As good as the book is, it’s marred by some gratuitous crude language that’s wholly unnecessary and does the author no credit.