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A review by thesynonymbun
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
4.0
I’ve read two books this year that were marked as young adult, and fantasy. I went into each not knowing anything about them, and oh boy were any
preconceived notions I had about either of them completely wrong.
Dandelion Wine reads almost as a collection of short essays about a small community called Green Town, set in the late Twenties. They’re all great individually, my favorites were Mrs Elmira Brown, and the one about The Tarot Witch.
As I said, they’re all good on their own, but this is one of those books that is somehow greater than the sum of its parts.
I turned 30 this year, and as many do, I suspect, have spent a lot of time thinking about Life and Death. I made the realization that Douglas does at around the same age: everything ends. And my milestone birthday had me obsessing about ends. But Bradbury walked me through it. We all realize that we’ll never be the person we were when we were younger. We can’t stop people from leaving us. And we’re lucky, we’ll all go like: in our own time, in our own bed, surrounded by people we love.
All this does not make change, or identity, or death less scary. I didn’t feel relief in finishing it. What I did feel is a sense of camaraderie, and in a book that is so pleasant to read, that’s enough for me.
preconceived notions I had about either of them completely wrong.
Dandelion Wine reads almost as a collection of short essays about a small community called Green Town, set in the late Twenties. They’re all great individually, my favorites were Mrs Elmira Brown, and the one about The Tarot Witch.
As I said, they’re all good on their own, but this is one of those books that is somehow greater than the sum of its parts.
I turned 30 this year, and as many do, I suspect, have spent a lot of time thinking about Life and Death. I made the realization that Douglas does at around the same age: everything ends. And my milestone birthday had me obsessing about ends. But Bradbury walked me through it. We all realize that we’ll never be the person we were when we were younger. We can’t stop people from leaving us. And we’re lucky, we’ll all go like
Spoiler
great-grandmaAll this does not make change, or identity, or death less scary. I didn’t feel relief in finishing it. What I did feel is a sense of camaraderie, and in a book that is so pleasant to read, that’s enough for me.