Dandelion Wine

A novel of incidents from the beginning through to the end of the summer of 1928 in the town of Green Town, Ill, pop: 26,349, explored principally through the eyes and lives of Douglas Spaulding, 12 years old, and his 9 year old brother Tom.

A novel about the wonder of summer through the eyes of inquisitive, intelligent, secure boys; a child's realization of the inevitability of death against the vitality and energy of youth; the loneliness of old age for some while for others its richness in succeeding generations; the significance that children attach to things, not yet understanding their ephermerality; loss of family members (through death) and friends (through life); the strength and support of extended family; the magic of youthful imaginations; the warp and woof of small-town life in a time of innocence now lost, but not an unreal one....and not entirely innocent as a serial killer is murdering women and instilling fear in the town.

Bradbury is a wonderful writer. Like Stephen Leacock he conveys humour is the absurdity of the normal in events and relations. Touches of almost magical realism clothed in the lively imagination of boys and painted with a remarkable strength of colour and rhythm and description and metaphor. A real pleasure to read.

Transcendent. Luminous. Heartbreakingly nostalgic. A re-read, of course, spurred on by the discovery of a brand new sequel. I've always loved this book, but never so much as now when my own boy is 12. This warm and loving novel-cum-memoir is nothing at all like Bradbury's other books. It's a love letter to that moment when one is hanging suspended in the dream space between childhood and manhood. It's the magic of new tennis shoes and the realization that you too must die. Bradbury inhabits Doug so fully that I have the summer of 1928 among my own memories. Extraordinary, highly recommended. ( )

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Young writers are often told to “write what you know,” a phrase usually taken to mean that said young writer should focus on the events of their own life in looking for inspiration. In a way, Dandelion Wine is a book produced out of that impulse. It is obviously mostly autobiographical, even without the clear proof of Bradbury’s introduction. It is the story of the summer of 1928 in Green Town, Illinois. Although the story is ostensibly from Douglas Spaulding’s point of view as a twelve-year old boy, the narrator is much older and many of the events of the story are told from the point of view of older characters. There is sometimes a sort of irony in the difference between their observations and the “discoveries” of Douglas and his brother Tom which follow those observations. Because Douglas is not the sole narrator this is really not a book for children. It is a book for those who remember being a child.

Bradbury is a master of the short story form and in many ways this book is really a collection of short stories about various citizens of Green Town in summer 1928, all of them held together by the framework of Douglas. The stories move in chronological order, often with interlocking plots and characters. Miss Roberta and Miss Fern are frequently seen, as are Douglas and Tom’s grandparents. This interlocking gives a sense of life in this small town, where people’s lives do not occur separately, but are interwoven.

Bradbury is also a master of prose and nowhere more so than here. Open the book to almost any page and almost any paragraph and you will find a gem waiting for you. There on the first page:

A whole summer ahead to cross off the calendar, day by day. Like the goddess Siva in the travel books, he saw his hands jump everywhere, pluck sour apples, peaches, and midnight plums. He would be clothed in trees and bushes and rivers. he would freeze, gladly, in the hoarfrosted icehouse door. He would bake, happily, with ten thousand chickens, Grandma’s kitchen.


And there are many others scattered throughout the book.

My favorite of all the stories is the time machine. This being Ray Bradbury, you might suppose that this is a time machine in the conventional science fiction sense. But Dandelion Wine is full of surprises. This time machine is no metal contraption. It is an old man, Colonel Freeleigh, who remembers the bison and the Civil War, although he cannot remember which side he fought on. He brings the past to life for the three friends, Charlie, John, and Douglas.

This is a book to revisit in the same way that Bradbury is revisiting the summers of his childhood, a book to savour and to let sink into your pores. It is a book which, like the dandelion wine of the title, you could open in the winter when you need the golden warmth of summer; it is a book which you could open in the summer to taste the flavor of all the summers past.

Highly recommended. ( )

I love the idea of summer in a small town- being able to run around in new tennis shoes, the sounds of lawnmowers, and drinking lemonade with the neighbors.
I don't remember why I put this book on my "to read" shelf, but I'm glad I did. ( )

this is simply gorgeous. i loved his writing and his nostalgia, i thought this was brilliant. i admit that it might work better as a collection of short stories - the bookending theme that he opens and closes with is a bit contrived - but everything in between is just beautiful. ( )