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Loading... Something Wicked This Way Comes (edition 1962)▾LibraryThing recommendations ▾Will you like it?
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 Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. ▾Work-to-work relationships Is contained inHas the adaptation
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Information from the Swedish Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to the English one. | |
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| Epigraph |
Man is in love, and loves what vanishes.
W.B. Yeats
They sleep not, except they have done mischief;
And their sleep is taken away,
unless they cause some to fall.
For they eat the bread of wickedness,
And they drink the wine of violence.
Proverbs 4:16-17
I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.
Stubb in Moby Dick  | |
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| Dedication |
With gratitude to
Jennet Johnson
who taught me how to write the short story
and to
Snow Longley Housh
who taught me poetry at Los Angeles High School a long time ago
and to
Jack Guss
who helped with this novel not so long ago | |
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The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm. | |
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Why love the woman who is your wife? Her nose breathes in the air of a world that I know; therefore I love that nose. Her ears hear music I might sing half the night through; therefore I love her ears. Her eyes delight in seasons of the land; and so I love those eyes. Her tongue knows quince, peach, chokeberry, mint and lime; I love to hear it speaking. Because her flesh knows heat, cold, affliction, I know fire, snow, and pain. Shared and once again shared experience. Billions of prickling textures. Cut one sense away, cut part of life away. Cut two senses; life halves itself on the instant. We love what we know, we love what we are. Common cause, common cause, of mouth, eye, ear, tongue, hand, nose, flesh, heart, and soul. "Sometimes the man who looks happiest in town, with the biggest smile, is the one carrying the biggest load of sin. There are smiles and smiles; learn to tell the dark variety from the light. The seal-barker, laugh-shouter, half the time he's covering up. He's had his fun and he's guilty. And men do love sin. Will, oh how they love it, never doubt, in all shapes, sizes, colors, and smells. Times come when troughs, not tables, suit our appetites. Hear a man too loudly praising others and look to wonder if he didn't just get up from the sty. On the other hand, that unhappy, pale, put-upon man walking by, who looks all guilt and sin, why, often that's your good man with a capitol G, Will. For being good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two. I've known a few. You work twice as hard to be a farmer as his to be his hog. I suppose it's thinking about being good that makes the crack run up the wall one night. A man with high standards, too, the least hair falls on him sometimes wilts his spine. He can't let himself alone, won't lift himself off the hook if he falls just a breath from grace." And, Will thought, here comes the carnival, Death like a rattle in one hand, Life like candy in the other; shake one to scare you, offer one to make your mouth water. Here comes the side show, both hands full! | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English (3)
▾LibraryThing members' description ▾Book descriptions Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0380729407, Mass Market Paperback)
A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a "dark carnival" one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark? Bradbury excels in revealing the dark side that exists in us all, teaching us ultimately to celebrate the shadows rather than fear them. In many ways, this is a companion piece to his joyful, nostalgia-drenched Dandelion Wine, in which Bradbury presented us with one perfect summer as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old. In Something Wicked This Way Comes, he deftly explores the fearsome delights of one perfectly terrifying, unforgettable autumn. --Stanley Wiater(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:48:32 -0500) (see all 6 descriptions) ▾Library descriptions Ray Bradbury's classic tale of a mysterious carnival arriving in a small town. (summary from another edition) » see all 7 descriptions |
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The first problem is that the prose is a bit outdated. It's like I ran into with The Haunting of Hill House, it just didn't age well over the last 40-50 years. It's not that it decreases the quality of the novel, but it makes you keenly aware that it was written during a different time, which, for me, made it difficult to really lose myself in.
The other thing that kept me from really getting into it is Bradbury's lyrical style of writing. It's definitely very poetic and pretty, but it's not the most natural way of speaking. Quite a few times, I had to reread a sentence once or twice and really focus on the words, because my brain just didn't naturally follow what was being read. The focus almost seems like it's more on the way the story is being told, rather than the actual story. It doesn't intimately bring you in close to the characters and their situation; rather, it keeps you on the outside while you watch what happens. I couldn't sink into it, which is what I prefer when reading.
Finally, the resolution is just a little too feel-good for me. Good conquers evil, I get it, but Bradbury didn't use this concept very subtly.
This review sounds more negative than I feel about the book, but these issues did drag it down. I still really enjoyed the plot and the characters from the carnival. Mr. Dark, the carnival's tattooed proprietor, is definitely a villain to remember. If you're looking to experience some of the classic American authors, I'd recommend Bradbury over almost everyone else. (