Rating: 
Summary: Ray Bradbury--in the nick of time
Review: 975 wordsReviewed by Barry Eysman, Brownsville,
TN. There was the Ray Bradbury story, "The
Pedestrian" in my tenth grade English Lit.
text. I counted the months, then the days,
till we got to it. So I could volunteer to
read it aloud, like we read all of the
stories aloud in class. I had read
"Dandelion Wine" when I was 13 and
was in love with Bradbury's worlds.
Without him, I would have died of
loneliness. Finally the GREAT DAY
arrived. I was just ready to vociferously
shoot up my hand up to read "The
Pedestrian." And the teacher said we
would read "The Outcasts of Poker Flats"
instead. He assigned it to me. No one has
ever read that story with such fury.
Everyone still fell asleep. I hated Brett Harte then. And now.
Almost as much as I hated and hate that
stupid teacher. We never got to Bradbury.
It broke my heart. So this October, after a
life's body of work that is filled with
song and fears and joys and sadnesses
almost beyond bearing, stories and novels
and plays and poems, comes Ray
Bradbury's new novel, "From the Dust
Returned." It is about Halloween and
death and laughing through skull jaws. It
is about an uncle who flies on wings and
is the greatest kite a boy could ever
unfurl. About mummies and ghouls and
girls who dream themselves into other
bodies to see what life is all about for
humans and animals--but all second
hand--though there is a happy ending for
her. The words dance like skittering leaves on
cold October nights, especially those
once a year leaves that tap dance on the
night of All Hallows. The novel is about
the greatest house of all time that literally
is built by the wind from pieces of the
whole world. It is about how fate's great
particulars accidentally preserve in that
house ancient Egypt. It is about life run
backwards. And death being life. And life
being death. It is prose poetry. Giddy and
a warm delight on a cold night. It is scary
and funny and bold. It does not duck
issues associated with the final mystery
for all of us. It says that we indeed should
not be afraid of death, for it's not afraid
of us. And what comes after might not be
so bad. Oh please be right. It is filled with black cats and spectral
words that just giggle inside me and
make me remember being 13 again and
the days when Doug Spaulding of
"Dandelion Wine" was my only friend. It
seems now, all these years later, that he is
still the only friend who never ditched
me. I started this new novel while in a
doctor's waiting room. Where there was
sickness and coughs and tension and
endless waiting for who the doctor would
see next. I had much anxiety that day.
Thank god for Ray Bradbury and Green
Town, Illinois and all the midnights of
this book and memories of his others.
They transport me. They delight me. He has written many dark stories. It's not
all summer and sunlight in his world.
There is much pain and grimness and
many dark stains of unhappiness and loss.
But this latest book is for conjuring
happily. It is a whirlwind gathering of red
and brown crisp coming on to winter
leaves. It is like curling up in the arms of
an old friend who knows the lay of the
land of my soul. Who knows that reality
will kill us, the bad way, if we don't
watch out. The words, the incorporated
earlier stories, the seamless blending of
them into new material, wink and tap
dance on themes of unique and different
and the need of having something to
believe in in this far too real world. His
characters and his dazzling word
paintings say, here, take my hand, you
can trust me; we will cry together and we
will hold on and we will hope, because
what else is there? Autumn resides in this
novel every bit as much as it did and does
in "The October Country" and "The
Halloween Tree" and other of his works.
He has written in another Halloween
story, some people get sad early on for no
particular reason. That's me. That's all of
us at one time or another. When the
world is too much with us, Ray Bradbury
comes along just in time with a new
fable. With words written in superlatives.
With words that break the heart and make
the lips smile in spite of themselves. He is Cecy. He dreams us his characters.
We live through them and the writer's
wise mature hand. But these are not
worlds we can see only from a distance,
though so seemingly up close, like Cecy's
fate for a time. These are words of
interior worlds that say anything is
possible. That read us. I love lots of
writers' works. But I always find myself
coming back to Ray Bradbury. Because
he knows how to make me fall in love
each time. He uses his boyish, complex
imagination that makes looking round
corners less daunting. All of his books are
medicines for melancholy. Library Saturdays in which dwells a
grand Halloween house eager for
company are the territory of, above all
else, him. I hope somewhere teachers are teaching his works. They are so much
fun! I hope kids are getting the chance to
see a bit of his pandemonium world, early
on so they can have a lifetime of him.
Tiresome critics and so veddy proper
professors will probably dismiss this
book because they're snobs and already
dead inside. A Thousand Times Great
Grandmere and Grandfather are far more
alive than they. Ray Bradbury is for me the place called
home. Happy Halloween, October people.
Rating: 
Summary: The Family Is. The House Is.
Review: A series of short stories strung together into a novel might sound like a disastrous idea. But the illustrious Ray Bradbury manages to pull it off in "From the Dust Returned." You thought your family was weird? Just wait until you see the Family reuniting at the House. The House is a dusty gothic place somewhere in the Midwest, and its inhabitants are far from ordinary. There is the mummified Granmere in the attic, the undead parents, an intelligent spider, the beautiful Cecy who sleeps and dreams -- and can "yank your soul like an aching tooth and shoot it into clouds to cool your spirit," and Timothy, the only mortal, truly human member of the Family. And now others in the Family are coming to the House: ghosts and winged men, werewolves and vampires. Old stories are told: Of Angelina Marguerite, who ages in reverse so that she can be reborn. Of Uncle Einar, whose life is changed by his challenge of the skies. Of Cecy, who longs to fall in love and uses another woman's body to do so. Of four adolescent boys who end up bodiless. And ultimately, the story of Timothy, the House, and the ever-changing world. Ray Bradbury manages to create a darker, more mystical version of the Addams Family (funnily enough, Charles Addams illustrated this novel's cover). The Family is a true motley crew, funny and sad and poignant and sometimes even a little naughty. Cecy's pursuit of love stands in stark contrast to Uncle Einar helping his wife with the laundry. The most lighthearted of the stories is about four adolescent boys running wild in their grandfather's memory. However, there is also a saddening undertone; lead character Timothy is the only person there who will age and die, and he feels somehow inferior to the rest of the Family. But Bradbury never makes him seem inferior; instead, his life as an ordinary human is a blessing. The Family itself is full of the weird and wonderful. Though these people are not human and are endowed with superhuman powers, their emotions and responses are just like those of ordinary relatives. But near the finale, we are reminded that they lack some of the best things about humans, and that belief and cynicism have a great impact upon them. It's a moving and thought-provoking passage. The writing is unusually poetic and dreamy, and dialogue ranges from mediocre romance-novel to prose equal to Patricia McKillip's. There is a slightly disjointed feel to the middle of this novel. As it was originally interconnected short stories, this isn't surprising. It may also be a little bit of a jolt for readers to go from a sad story to a funny one so quickly, within the same storyline. And Cecy seems to have some major shifts in personality between stories. Flaws aside, this is a wonderful fantasy/horror novel, with a great cast of characters, a likeable hero and a enjoyable loose-knit storyline. A must-read, even if you're not a fan of Bradbury or dark fantasy in general. Whoever said the Midwest was boring?
Rating:
Summary: Takes a bit more thought, but well worth it
Review: As always, Bradbury created a work of beauty. All of his work has a sort of poetic beauty, and that is where this work shines the most. By the end, even if you aren't quite sure what exactly it meant, you will at least have experienced beautiful prose.
Which brings me to the reason you may not enjoy the book; you could easily read this book and not understand most of what happened. Like Bradbury's most recent work, it deviates quite a bit from traditional storytelling. Not all of the stories have well defined plots, or clear unambigous resolutions. This may turn you off (for me, this made the difference between 4 and 5 stars for my rating.)
So if you are looking for something like his earlier work - like the Martian Chronicles or the Illustrated Man, you may not enjoy this one as much. But if you are willing to give something a bit different (and more like Quicker than the Eye), you won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: More Poetry than Plot
Review: Bradbury's "From the Dust Returned" is a linguistic achievement. Line after line, his prose flows smoothly and seamlessly. He creates an eerie and exciting atmosphere which is itself almost a substitute for a general lack of plot. It is through innocent and adverturous characters and a strong use of language that Bradbury provides the reader with more of a masterful literary experience than entertainment. Despite Bradbury's charming, innocent characters and poetic prose, there is little at stake here and the novel is at times a connection of sketches and short stories. Although meaningful, the novel's ending is not very dramatic and ends suddenly.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Prose
Review: Bradbury's prose alone makes this book worth buying and reading. I read (enjoyed!) this book as much for the prose as for the story itself. It was a real joy to read. Unfortunately, it shows what many other authors don't have: the ability to make the words "sing", the ability to enhance the story by the writing style. I bought it alone for the story, but received the surprising added benefit and enjoyment of a wonderful prose.
Rating:
Summary: BRADBURY AT HIS BEST
Review: For many years Ray Bradbury has either been ignored or judged harshly by most critics. The people who appreciate him most are fellow-writers (such as Stephen King) who understand what he's doing, and the millions of readers who continue to read and re-read his books. What Ray is doing is writing some of the best fantasy stories and novels ever written. One hundred years from now I'll bet most of the critics' current darlings will be long forgotten, but that Bradbury, like E.A. Poe, will still be widely read. This latest novel is something of a miracle. In it, Ray has returned to the family of extraordinary characters he created in the 1940's in great stories such as "Uncle Einar" and "Spring Witch" and written about a reunion of this family. This is fantasy at its best and may be one of the best books in Ray's long career. I salute you, Ray Bradbury, for providing me with a lifetime of insight, unforgettable stories and characters, and all-around great reading. The brilliant Russian writer, Yuri Dombrovsky, who was suppressed and imprisoned during the communist period, uses a quote from Ray at the beginning of his masterpiece, THE FACULTY OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE: "And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run. And some day we'll remember so much that we'll...dig the biggest grave of all time..." I salute you, Ray Bradbury, the Great Rememberer.
Rating:
Summary: Delicate, Beautiful Images
Review: From the Dust Returned is culled from a half century of ideas, images, and stories of Ray Bradbury and formed into a beautifully coherent whole that only on occasion shows its disparate origins. It is the sheer imagination that goes into creating the delicate images and characters that populate this lovely book that will delight the reader. The novel would require more substance to be among Bradbury's fantasy classics, such as Something Wicked This Way Comes, but, taken on its own, this book will still thrill the reader interested in wandering through a gentle fantasy filled with ghosts, men with wings, mummies and a girl whose mind journeys through many miles and even more hosts. A very short but pleasant read.
Rating:
Summary: Delicate, Beautiful Images
Review: From the Dust Returned is culled from a half century of ideas, images, and stories of Ray Bradbury and formed into a beautifully coherent whole that only on occasion shows its disparate origins. It is the sheer imagination that goes into creating the delicate images and characters that populate this lovely book that will delight the reader. The novel would require more substance to be among Bradbury's fantasy classics, such as Something Wicked This Way Comes, but, taken on its own, this book will still thrill the reader interested in wandering through a gentle fantasy filled with ghosts, men with wings, mummies and a girl whose mind journeys through many miles and even more hosts. A very short but pleasant read.
Rating:
Summary: Greatness of a small scale
Review: From the Dust Returned is said to be Ray Bradbury's masterpiece. After all, it did take him fourty years to write it. This very short book (it can barely be called a novel) contains stories Bradbury wrote in the 40s and 50s, linked with more modern pieces from this great author's imagination. And yet, I have to admit that the book didn't much for me. The story itself concerns a family of monsters and ghosts who assemble from time to time in the great family mansion. The subtitle says it all; this IS a family remembrance. We come to learn about each member of the family; their stories, the sadness, their pain. And some of these stories were quite entertainin. Cecy and uncle Einar have great histories, but many of the other characters don't. As I read each of these short, short stories (some barely a page long), I couldn't help but feel that the book was getting a little repetitive after a while. But just when I was about to give up, Bradbury comes and delivers a very touching and affecting finale that will bring a smile to your lips. What saves this book from being just another horror novel is Bradbury's beautiful poetic style. His words flow so smoothly that you'll often find yourself lost in his narrative. But besides that, there isn't much that is greatly memorable about From the Dust Returned. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but that's pretty much it. Is this Bradbury's masterpiece? Not by a long shot. It's midly entertaining, while it lasts.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good, Very Surreal
Review: From the Dust Returned tells the trials and tribulations of an odd Illinois family with mysterious origins. This nameless family has appeared in previous Bradbury works; readers will recognize such mysterious characters as the elusive Cecy and the inhuman Uncle Einar. The book is written in a very unusal format: stories within a story. A primary plot laces throughout the book, but takes occasional breaks as a short story surfaces within the story. Each and every story, including the primary plot, strikes very inexplicable emotions within. Don't be suprised if this desolate yet heartfelt book plucks strings within your heart and mind; strings that you didn't even know existed. From the Dust Returned's only fault is in its unusual format. Without concentrating very closely on the story, it is very easy to confuse one of the sub-plots with one of the major story lines. A great amount of concentration is required to experience the full effect of this extremely short book (a mere 200 pages). All in all, From the Dust Returned is an eerie romp through every aspect of the human psyche. Its questionable characters and nonconforming plot possess a quality that can only be described as Bradbury-esque.
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