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A review by geoffwood
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales by Ray Bradbury
3.0
The big thing that strikes me returning to Bradbury after nearly 20 years is how utterly conservative the dude is. Truly does not seem to get enough cred as being like Reverse Lovecraft convinced that Life and Art peaked in 1850 (hmm) and tortured by how the progress of time and society (hmm) will ultimately outlaw/burn/ignore Beauty and then people will just watch TV and screw and crush butterflies in their hands.
That said, for this being the top 10% or whatever of his work, a good 25% of these are just DOGS, like the 15 different riffs on Fahrenheit 451 or the Bazooka Joe jokes stretched out into ten pages (see: How Are Irish Fellas Like Gay Fellas, What If a Cowboy Was Mean to His Barber).
That said, when it works, goddammit he's good. "The Swan" ("lime vanilla ice") is one of my favorite short stories ever, and most of the horror is effortlessly chilling. Just uh maybe toss the Martian stories and the Irish stories and the What If An Old Author Guy Was Alive Today stories and the Censors Deserve to Die stories and the Surprise! They're a Robut stories and ...
That said, for this being the top 10% or whatever of his work, a good 25% of these are just DOGS, like the 15 different riffs on Fahrenheit 451 or the Bazooka Joe jokes stretched out into ten pages (see: How Are Irish Fellas Like Gay Fellas, What If a Cowboy Was Mean to His Barber).
That said, when it works, goddammit he's good. "The Swan" ("lime vanilla ice") is one of my favorite short stories ever, and most of the horror is effortlessly chilling. Just uh maybe toss the Martian stories and the Irish stories and the What If An Old Author Guy Was Alive Today stories and the Censors Deserve to Die stories and the Surprise! They're a Robut stories and ...