Horror Book Reviews
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Title: Dandelion Wine |
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Review of Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. Dandelion Wine stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author's most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small-town summer in 1928.
Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole wide world that lies beyond the city limits. It is a pair of brand-new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather's renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley's bell on a hazy afternoon. It is yesteryear and tomorrow blended into an unforgettable always. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.
Come and savor Ray Bradbury's priceless distillation of all that is eternal about boyhood and summer.
Product Description
- World-renowned fantasist Ray Bradbury has on several occasions stepped outside the arenas of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. An unabashed romantic, his first novel in 1957 was basically a love letter to his childhood. (For those who want to undertake an even more evocative look at the dark side of youth, five years later the author would write the chilling classic Something Wicked This Way Comes.)
Dandelion Wine takes us into the summer of 1928, and to all the wondrous and magical events in the life of a 12-year-old Midwestern boy named Douglas Spaulding. This tender, openly affectionate story of a young man's voyage of discovery is certainly more mainstream than exotic. No walking dead or spaceships to Mars here. Yet those who wish to experience the unique magic of early Bradbury as a prose stylist should find Dandelion Wine most refreshing. --Stanley Wiater
Amazon.com
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Comments for Dandelion Wine
- Posted on 2008-07-27
A nostalgic look at the summer of 1928
This book came highly recommended, and I was expecting to fall in love with it. And although the language and images are poetic and beautiful, there isn't any single real storyline here. The book is composed of a series of interrelated short stories which chronicle the experiences of a young boy growing up in a small Illinois town during the summer of 1928. From these stories there emerges a picture of summer, gliding magically by. Some of these mini stories are quite good. They range from the light and humorous (for example, the Green Machine, and the use of black magic to upset election results at the Honeysuckle Ladies' Lodge) to the dark (the Lonely One is on the prowl, and so far this summer he has strangled three women in a ravine). Overall, this book is beautifully written, but I am deducting one star because it lacks a compelling plot and a "what-happens-next?" factor, which unforuntately makes this book easy to put down.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-07-18
Dandelion Wine/Farewell Summer Audio Book Disaster/Triumph
My wife and I just had the joy of discovering Ray Bradbury's sequel to Dandelion Wine (1957), Farewell Summer (2006) in audio CD format.
Farewell Summer
It is a delightfully well read audio book. We looked forward to hearing a gracious reading of Dandelion Wine as well. Thankfully, we checked it out of the library. It is headed straight back to the shelves.
Dandelion Wine (2 CD Set)
As others have said, this 'dramatization' of Bradbury's earlier 'childhood memoir' is a disaster. The production values are non-existent; the readers cannot be heard and the hokey sound effects have you running for the volume knob to protect your hearing.
Dear Recorded Books, Dandelion Wine deserves a proper, unabridged reading. Please contact Ray Bradbury and make arrangements to accomplish this task. You know how to do it!
Score: 1
- Posted on 2008-06-28
Summer School Book Talk
I taught summer school this year, and I use this to "break the ice." We listened to the chapter about buying new shoes as a summer tradition and how "new shoes would make [him] run faster."
Dandelion Wine is more memoire, although it has some elements of fantasy in it. It's a feel-good book about being a kid, enjoying summer, and recognizing that life is passing but that what's in the here and now is as precious as the "Dandelion Wine" that the old people make and drink while you (as a kid) hang out under the porch listening to their stories. It's a coming of age book, while at the same time, being a snapshot of childhood.
This story, because it's set in the early 1900's, is timeless. It's a chance to think about endless summer. I paired it with the Beach Boys (which for my sophomores are equally old and classic!!!) and it was a hit.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-06-22
Don't Waste Your Money or Your TIME!!!
For those of you who enjoy artificial vanilla and cliff notes this is your new favorite book on CD!! For those of you who hold out for the finer things in life it is nothing but a HUGE let-down. Dandelion Wine is one of the best books Ray Bradbury has written. This third rate production does no justice to the eloquence or mystery of the book. I would highly reccomend the unabridged "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury in lieu of this imposter.
Score: 1 - Posted on 2008-05-27
Excellent writing! A pleasure to read.
This is about a boy ...about life ...about 1928.
Bradbury writes about a summer when a twelve-year-old boy realizes that he is alive. That summer is about life, and death that goes with life, and how this boy reconciles these to himself.
It is also about a time now gone. Bradbury preserves life in 1928 in this book for us from his perspective when he was a boy.
This book is about what is real in contrast with that which is merely manufactured.
This book should survive time and be read years from now. It is a literary classic.
Score: 5