Reviews

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

caroledford's review against another edition

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Maybe it just wasn’t the right time, but I couldn’t get into it. 

angievan's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

holyheadharpie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

prosiaczekk's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

ana_lidia's review against another edition

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3.5

"June dawns, July noon, August evenings over, finished, done, and gone forever with only the sense of it all left here in his head"

rally_t's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

4.75

jilliang's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

5.0

bosswench's review against another edition

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5.0

 Nobody writes like Bradbury, and nobody is better at writing about childhood from the perspective of children than Bradbury. His books are portals. You could crack this spine open and crawl inside it, live in Green Town, Illinois, summer of '28, sip some dandelion wine. I know I'm being hyperbolic, but this feels like sacred text to me--summer, a child's recognition of his mortality, nostalgia as inheritance, Lynchian shadow (decades before Lynch and "Lynchian" anything--so perhaps actually Bradburian), Rites & Ceremonies, Discoveries & Revelations. 

mrsdaliborreads's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

joshknape's review against another edition

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3.0

Dandelion Wine is a collection of related vignettes that support and periodically return to one plot thread, or a short novel interrupted by many related vignettes. The entire book, including the vignettes but especially the main plot thread of twelve-year-old Douglas Spalding's coming of age in Green Town (based on Waukegan, Illinois) in summer 1925, is strikingly melancholy.

I can make a strong case that the book is actually a poem or series of poems sung to the memory of childhood.

About the writing style: there may be better examples I haven't read, but among writers I've read, Ray Bradbury uses the technique of writing through word association most extensively; and although Dandelion Wine is only the third Bradbury work I've read, it is the best example of Bradbury's word association technique.
I'm not sure why I really took notice only on the second reading, but I've probably never read a book so saturated in sensual description. If you want to learn how to write description that poetically appeals to the senses, consider Dandelion Wine required reading.
Stylistically, I call Ray Bradbury a free spirit: at least in Dandelion Wine, he plays with words more freely than any writer I've examined other than Shakespeare.