★★★★★ 5
Vintage Bradbury
Format: Hardcover
Ray Bradbury
August 22nd 1922 - June 5th, 2012
When Ray Bradbury died reactions came from everywhere including from President Obama. Surprising to me, few mentioned the one of his works that meant so much to me and affected my life so deeply. While he was most known to the general public for his science fiction, I found his mostly autobiographical novel Dandelion Wine to be the most impactful. At the same time it best illustrated Bradbury’s incredible command of the language, his ability to stir the imagination, and the way in which he could open windows on life.
I couldn’t count the number of times I would reread a single sentence and become overwhelmed with admiration and envy at how he used words to create images in the mind’s eye. All this was particularly on display in Dandelion Wine and its sequel, Farewell Summer. For Bradbury, it couldn’t be just water. “Nothing else would do but the pure waters which had been summoned from the lakes far away and the sweet fields of grassy dew on early morning, lifted to the open sky, carried in laundered clusters nine hundred miles, brushed with wind, electrified with high voltage, and condensed upon cool air. This water, falling, raining, gathered yet more of the heavens in its crystals. Taking something of the east wind and the west wind and the north wind and the south, the water made rain and the rain, within this hour of rituals, would be well on its way to wine.”
Essentially, Dandelion Wine is the story of a summer in the life of a twelve year old boy as he comes to understand what it means to be alive. But it is also a time capsule for the year 1928 of life in a small town when everyone’s world was much smaller and more compact. There is horror, love, comedy, wonder, nostalgia, and human relations. Bradbury could find unique ways to describe them all.
I first read Dandelion Wine in 1957 when I wasn’t much older than Douglas Spaulding, the central character. It helped me put life in perspective as I was leaving high school. I read it the second time in the early ‘80s when I introduced my daughter to it. Kelly and I sat on our front porch swing one warm summer evening and I read aloud to her the story of Bill Forrester and Helen Loomis. It was all I could do to finish it and when I did we both had tears streaming down our cheeks. Such was the power of imagination and Bradbury’s ability to stroke it to life using just words.
I read it the third time in preparation for reading the sequel, Farewell Summer, written 55 years after Dandelion Wine. Like a fine wine, it had only gotten better with age. Appropriately, Farewell Summer was given to me by Kelly and I read it on summer’s eve 2012. It was the perfect beginning for yet another summer.
In both books the ravine in Green Town, Illinois, based on Waukegan, Illinois where Bradbury grew up was a central feature. I couldn’t resist going to Googlearth to see if the ravine was real. It was. And, it is still there even after Waukegan had changed from a small town to a satellite of Chicago. I was pleased to simply find I could locate it. But when I zoomed in and highlighted the little tree symbol I found the ravine is now Ray Bradbury Park. Perfect!
Dan Winters
June 29, 2012
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Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2013
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