Farewell Summer
by Ray Bradbury
This poignant, wise but slight "extension" of the indefatigable Bradbury's semiautobiographical Dandelion Wine picks up the story of 12-year-old Douglas Spaulding in October of 1928, when the warmth of summer still clings to Green Town, Ill. As in his episodic 1957 novel, Bradbury evokes the rhythms of a long-gone smalltown America with short, swift chapters that build to a lyrical meditation on aging and death... Bradbury's mature but fresh return to his beloved early writing conveys a depth of feeling.
Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine has aged remarkably well, losing none of its nostalgic charm during the 49 years since its first printing. Writing sequels is something entirely new in Bradbury's long career of perpetual creativity, and so his return to Green Town, Illinois, and the escapades of the author's boyhood alter ego, Douglas Spaulding, is surprising as well as welcome. Whereas Dandelion Wine takes the form of a series of interconnected tales, Farewell Summer tells one unbroken story set during an autumnal heat wave in the year Douglas turns 14... A touching meditation on memories, aging, and the endless cycle of birth and death, and a fitting capstone, perhaps, to a brilliant career.
2 editions available
Editions
This poignant, wise but slight "extension" of the indefatigable Bradbury's semiautobiographical Dandelion Wine picks up the story of 12-year-old Douglas Spaulding in October of 1928, when the warmth of summer still clings to Green Town, Ill. As in his episodic 1957 novel, Bradbury evokes the rhythms of a long-gone smalltown America with short, swift chapters that build to a lyrical meditation on aging and death... Bradbury's mature but fresh return to his beloved early writing conveys a depth of feeling. Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine has aged remarkably well, losing none of its nostalgic charm during the 49 years since its first printing. Writing sequels is something entirely new in Bradbury's long career of perpetual creativity, and so his return to Green Town, Illinois, and the escapades of the author's boyhood alter ego, Douglas Spaulding, is surprising as well as welcome. Whereas Dandelion Wine takes the form of a series of interconnected tales, Farewell Summer tells one unbroken story set during an autumnal heat wave in the year Douglas turns 14... A touching meditation on memories, aging, and the endless cycle of birth and death, and a fitting capstone, perhaps, to a brilliant career.