Dandelion Wine

Rating:
Summary: Nostalgic ride in the Happiness Machine
Review: I wasn't alive in 1928, and probably neither are most of the people who are reading this now. But Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine" is similar to what it's named after: It's a magical summery substance trapped in a bottle -- or, in this case, a book. This is not the 1928 of bathtub gin and flappers, it's about a little boy in the Midwest.

It begins with the advent of summer. Douglas Spalding ses himself in summer -- dandelion wine, charting the little things of life, running through the woods with Tom, buying new sneakers and staying out until dark. It is about a man who builds a machine to make people happy, but only makes those around him miserable instead. It is about an old woman who tries to convince little children that she was once like them. There are haunted ravines, visions of Paris, wild runs in the woods, mingled with the bittersweet shadows of summers past.

Ray Bradbury is one of those few writers who actually seems to remember what it's like to be a kid. Douglas is an endearing boy, who manages to be innocent, enthusiastic and full of awe without making me feel sick to my stomach. The supporting characters are also as bright and real as actual people; none of them are flat or cartoonish. You could imagine driving into any town in Illinois and bumping into people like this: shop owners, mothers, reclusive old ladies, kindly grandfathers, bright young boys who specialize in creeping around soundlessly, and weary farmers.

Bradbury's writing is, in technical terms, not very good. But it is exceptional in that it sucks you in and makes you see and feel and experience everything in the book. There's no solid plotline, rather there are several plot threads that interweave and cling together (like the Happiness Machine, something which is supposed to give you visions and sensations that will make you happy). It's written with the sort of innocent view of a child, and children can definitely read this. If they are patient and don't mind a lack of slapstick or bang-bang action, then this book will definitely be appreciated. Adults too. And definitely anyone who was ten years old in 1928.

Rating:
Summary: Summer, 1928
Review: Magical. If the word 'magical' didn't exist, we would have to invent it in order to properly describe Ray Bradbury's DANDELION WINE. The premise is absurdly simple: one summer in a small Midwestern town during the late 1920's. On the surface it doesn't look like a lot to hang a novel on, but Bradbury puts so much heart, soul and, yes, love into his words that I defy anyone to call it an empty book. Bradbury has always written superbly for children, and slipping his characters into his own nostalgic childhood succeeds on virtually every level.

I've always preferred Bradbury's short stories to his full novels, yet here he successfully manages to have his cake and eat it too. Most of the chapters are self-contained little story segments. In fact, I had come across portions of this book in short story collections, and had no idea that they were smaller parts of a larger work. Yet DANDELION WINE is much more than just a collection of stories. The children and adults alike grow and change as the summer days burn and then fade. Just like a real season, some events are disconnected from the rest and can involve seldom seen people, while other proceedings are intrinsically linked to their peers.

The book itself is fairly difficult to sum up; every definition that I've tried coming up with has omitted several major elements. Of course, any summary that tried to include everything would be far too long and would contain none of the magic of the text. Children discover some fundamental and universal truths for the first time. Adults deal with their own fears and their own nightmares. And, of course, there are the usual wonderful collection of Bradbury eccentrics and strangers. Children are filled with awe and recognizably childlike without being annoying or unrealistic. There really are too many great little moments in this book to go into huge amounts of detail. To mention a handful of great things is to omit the other wonderful moments. Just like most perfect summers, the book isn't great because of one or two gigantic epics, but because of small quiet little days. From the silent thrill of feeling the grass beneath one's feet to the heartbreak at finding a lover at a point far too late in life, DANDELION WINE contains a huge amount of diversity under the cohesive umbrella of a typical summer. Two disparate events can be quite different in both content and feel, but Bradbury is more than talented enough to make them both feel like part of the same summer.

DANDELION WINE has a passion for childlike exuberance and the wonder of first discoveries all wrapped up in a healthy portion of nostalgic longing. This book is really a series of parts, but manages to add up to more than their sum. Like individual summer days, they can be appealing on their own, but taken as a whole the result is magical.

Rating:
Summary: lori's review
Review: This wasn't the best book I have ever read, but it was ok. I didn't think they did a good job of introducing the characters because I couldn't get a visual picture of Doug and Tom in my head, which I felt would have made the begining of the book especially easier to read. By the time I got to the end though, the theme I realized was very important and I thought it was a great lesson! If the begining of this book was a little more exciting then I probably wuld have liked it a lot better.

Rating:
Summary: 6 stars!
Review: First read this book as a boy. I read it ever summer. It is a time machine that takes me back to those magic days, as well as makes me appreciate the here and now. A celebration of life! It'll make you want to put on some tennis shoes and go running through the wilderness...

Rating:
Summary: Magical
Review: Bradbury's prose is captivating. His descriptions of life through the eyes of a child fill the adult heart with a yearning to turn back the clock to the days of innocence and discovery, when even the most mundane aspects of life could come mystically alive. This story should serve to remind us that maybe the simpler outlooks on life are the most important. After all, one day we discover we're alive, and on another we realize that we will inevitably die. Since noone can tell with certainty when the latter will overtake us, we must fill the days between as meaningfully as possible.

Do yourself a favor - sit down to read this novel over a few balmy summer evenings and let yourself be taken back...

Rating:
Summary: A dish of lime-vanilla ice, please.
Review: While this story takes place in an Illinois Town of the 1920's, if you were born in a small to mid-sized town anywhere in North America, fifty years before or after, you will recognise much of the settings and feelings in this book. Bradbury captures eternal youth here, as only his poetic, Zen-like writing style can manage. The only other book that really equals it in this respect is Twain's _Huckleberry Finn_.
There are small things in these stories that tug at your childhood memories and at your forgotten childhood soul (remember when you still had a soul, before you sold it?) I truly wonder at times if memories like this are still being made in the kind of post-modern world we've created for our children....
...

Rating:
Summary: If you were born under less than 50 stars....
Review: If you were born under a flag with less than 50 stars, then this book will speak to you. While it is set in 1920's Illinois, this book resonates perhaps 50 years into the future, and into the past. Alas, I fear that it may resonate very faintly in these "post-modern" times. Still, if your life is rooted in that Golden-Age of small-town, heartland America, you will recognise these scenes, these characters, these feelings. Bradbury is a writer, a poet actually, of the heart and of feelings. Indeed, before I read him I didn't have the understanding or the patience to read poetry. Afterwards I did. He opened me up to subtle things.

When I see people critisizing his style as rambling or flowery, I can see that they just don't get it. Perhaps it is true that in the latter days children will be born without souls....

By the way, if you ever pass through Green Town, I'll be the one at the end of the drug store counter ordering a dish of lime-vanilla ice.

Rating:
Summary: DANDELION WINE
Review: THis book is a good book, but Bradbury spends so much time explaining the details he forgets about the plot. Each chapter really has nothing to do with the previous one.

Rating:
Summary: This is Bradbury's best...and that's saying a lot!
Review: As Ray Bradbury told me in 1998, "I'm an optimal behaviorist. That is, each day I operate at the top of my genetics." DANDELION WINE shows us the roots of this incredibly positive attitude about life. As a child, Ray is just like the rest of us--only more so. He's frightened of what may come, he's overjoyed at finding out he's alive, trapped inside a living body bag. He is fascinated by everything he sees, touches, smells, imagines. He's what a real boy really was, back in the 1930's. DANDELION WINE will take you places only your heart knows about, and make you want to go back to the best days, the days you didn't realize were so great till they had passed you by. This book should be required reading in every school, every household in the world. Anyone who has not yet given up on life will be re-charged and invigorated by letting Ray Bradbury touch their lives just one more time... --Jim Reed, author, DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS, HIDDEN COMFORTS, UNEXPECTED JOYS (jimreedbooks.com)

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Summary: Another "Dandelion Wine" Review
Review: Another Review of Ray Bradbury's, "Dandelion Wine"
Posted By the Fearless Man_Muffin

"Dandelion Wine" is a book describing the summer of two young boys, and what goes on in their hometown. This book was written by Ray Bradbury and is a great example of a well-written fantasy novel.
This novel takes you through a tour of the mind of a child, and makes you see the way Bradbury thinks. Though written in the fifties, this book can relate to many different issues we speak of today, such as religion and the incurable illness of wanton happiness.
The description and characterization of this novel is well though and has very few limits as to what you want to make of the words. One great thing about Bradbury is that he does not spell out the problem or solution to a novel, he lets you take in what you want and to use your mind in deciding why each of the things in the novel took place, and the relevance on it to the novel.
The way Bradbury writes is very unique and extraordinary. His writing is like this because he makes the most of his words, and doesn't have time to mess around with the reader's head. He gets his point across in his brief strange way, and leaves it to you to make out what you thought he meant. This book was written during the time of Bradbury's peak, if you will, during the time of, "The Martian Chronicles", and "Fahrenheit 451". This time period of Bradbury's creative writing was a great one, and I would personally recommend any one of those novels.
The story line in this novel is very unique and down to earth. It is very well developed and has a few plot twists that are very interesting. Almost anyone who has ever been a kid once can relate to most of the things that occur in this book. It is about the search for happiness, and the answer to how to live a small town life. It is not you original Tom Sawyer novel but it has more complex issues in it and is much more interesting in my opinion.
Ray Bradbury is one of the most brilliant fantasy authors of our time and is continuing to write strong into his eighties. "Dandelion Wine", without a doubt, is one of his best novels and a great book to read if you are into fantasy. I give it nine out of ten stars.