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A review by tbr_the_unconquered
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales by Ray Bradbury
5.0
Dear Mr. Bradbury,
I took a lot of time to finish your book. Not because the stories were complicated to read or because this collection was a big one, it was for the simple reason that I wanted to savor the aftertaste of each and every one of the tales. After I finished a tale, I closed the book and my eyes to relive those images you so vividly explained. You made me relive my childhood days of carefree wanderings and never ending hours of play. How as a child you never feel the sun as you play on and on for hours altogether and yet come back home still raring to go. As you grow up, an hour outside in the sun wrings you out like a dishrag and you wonder where did all that reserve of energy disappear to. Childhood was this magical glen and your words were time machines alighted me on those meadows yet again, even though it was only for a short while.
You did love autumn didn’t you ? The leaves the color of fire, the wind that comes down from the skies, Halloween and of mellow fruitfulness all make an appearance in these stories. I could practically see and feel the melancholy that the season inspires on the human mind. Beyond a set of stories, I was looking forward to just another tale set in autumn..and another…and another…I couldn’t have enough of them. Then there were the sci-fi stories which to me always meant a backbone of science (no matter how impossible it is !) atop which a story it built. What I found in your tales was a gossamer thin thread of science which was only one ingredient of a magnificent set of other constituents. Mars beckoned to me after these tales ! Mars with its glorious civilizations and never ending wonders and Mars which was left a broken land by the greedy humans who colonized it. It was a Mars of your imagination and yet those stories set on the red planet are tinged with a sadness which can never be fully explained. Those magic days of Mars are now past us, never to be regained !
A look at the future as seen from your eyes is at times a bleak one. True villainy in your future takes the form of ignorance and appears as men hell bent on burning and destroying all the books they can find. A later novel of yours had its entire premise on the topic of burning books and this was truly a horrifying glimpse at a future devoid of imagination, art and literature. A wide variety of characters make their cameos in your stories : Poe, Bierce, Melville, Thomas Wolfe and Hemingway came alive and talked to me. I walked with them and comprehended but a tiny glimpse of their majestic and intimidating world of words. A book can never be forgotten Mr.Bradbury, it can never be mishandled and can never be taken anywhere near a flame ! Books may be mortal but the ideas they plant inside our heads, those are immortal and those can never be burned or stamped away. I believe in this and it is my guiding light. There was also the odd horror story in between the others with the moment of terror slowly building up and creeping up to me in all its fiendish glory. Nothing bloody or gore filled, just the plain unsettlement of having been a witness to something quite extraordinary.
The feel of being in love is a spell that you can never fully recreate as you age. The first time you held hands with your love, the endless conversations on seemingly inconsequential subjects, the first hurried (and mostly awkward) kiss are all vivid memories you can never fully wipe out of your mind and yet you capture them perfectly. The naïve days of first love, the heartbreaks, the late bloomers in love, simple companionship : all of it find a place in your stories. A steady companion and a long conversation are rather blissful facts of life and sometimes we take them for granted, which we really shouldn’t ain’t it so ?
There is so much more I could write about your stories : Of Dublin, Heeber Finn’s pub, quiet towns in America, the fireworks on the fourth of July, time machines, cathedrals…. It is a long list of wonders.
I will close this letter with an apology to you Mr.Bradbury. I always thought of you as a writer of sci-fi and horror and now I realize how grossly off the mark I was. You are way beyond all these stereotypes for you are a wizard. Someone who weaves spells with your tales. A wizard with words. Where ever you are right now sir, here’s to you !
Yours Truly
My top picks from the hundred are these stories :
1. The Rocket
2. The Beggar On O’Connell Bridge
3. The Flying Machine
4. Banshee
5. The Illustrated Man
6. The Dragon
7. The Kilimanjaro Device
8. Bless Me, Father, For I Have Sinned
9. Death & The Maiden
10. All On A Summer’s Night
Note : Read this book ! Just pick this up and start reading NOW !
I took a lot of time to finish your book. Not because the stories were complicated to read or because this collection was a big one, it was for the simple reason that I wanted to savor the aftertaste of each and every one of the tales. After I finished a tale, I closed the book and my eyes to relive those images you so vividly explained. You made me relive my childhood days of carefree wanderings and never ending hours of play. How as a child you never feel the sun as you play on and on for hours altogether and yet come back home still raring to go. As you grow up, an hour outside in the sun wrings you out like a dishrag and you wonder where did all that reserve of energy disappear to. Childhood was this magical glen and your words were time machines alighted me on those meadows yet again, even though it was only for a short while.
You did love autumn didn’t you ? The leaves the color of fire, the wind that comes down from the skies, Halloween and of mellow fruitfulness all make an appearance in these stories. I could practically see and feel the melancholy that the season inspires on the human mind. Beyond a set of stories, I was looking forward to just another tale set in autumn..and another…and another…I couldn’t have enough of them. Then there were the sci-fi stories which to me always meant a backbone of science (no matter how impossible it is !) atop which a story it built. What I found in your tales was a gossamer thin thread of science which was only one ingredient of a magnificent set of other constituents. Mars beckoned to me after these tales ! Mars with its glorious civilizations and never ending wonders and Mars which was left a broken land by the greedy humans who colonized it. It was a Mars of your imagination and yet those stories set on the red planet are tinged with a sadness which can never be fully explained. Those magic days of Mars are now past us, never to be regained !
A look at the future as seen from your eyes is at times a bleak one. True villainy in your future takes the form of ignorance and appears as men hell bent on burning and destroying all the books they can find. A later novel of yours had its entire premise on the topic of burning books and this was truly a horrifying glimpse at a future devoid of imagination, art and literature. A wide variety of characters make their cameos in your stories : Poe, Bierce, Melville, Thomas Wolfe and Hemingway came alive and talked to me. I walked with them and comprehended but a tiny glimpse of their majestic and intimidating world of words. A book can never be forgotten Mr.Bradbury, it can never be mishandled and can never be taken anywhere near a flame ! Books may be mortal but the ideas they plant inside our heads, those are immortal and those can never be burned or stamped away. I believe in this and it is my guiding light. There was also the odd horror story in between the others with the moment of terror slowly building up and creeping up to me in all its fiendish glory. Nothing bloody or gore filled, just the plain unsettlement of having been a witness to something quite extraordinary.
The feel of being in love is a spell that you can never fully recreate as you age. The first time you held hands with your love, the endless conversations on seemingly inconsequential subjects, the first hurried (and mostly awkward) kiss are all vivid memories you can never fully wipe out of your mind and yet you capture them perfectly. The naïve days of first love, the heartbreaks, the late bloomers in love, simple companionship : all of it find a place in your stories. A steady companion and a long conversation are rather blissful facts of life and sometimes we take them for granted, which we really shouldn’t ain’t it so ?
There is so much more I could write about your stories : Of Dublin, Heeber Finn’s pub, quiet towns in America, the fireworks on the fourth of July, time machines, cathedrals…. It is a long list of wonders.
I will close this letter with an apology to you Mr.Bradbury. I always thought of you as a writer of sci-fi and horror and now I realize how grossly off the mark I was. You are way beyond all these stereotypes for you are a wizard. Someone who weaves spells with your tales. A wizard with words. Where ever you are right now sir, here’s to you !
Yours Truly
My top picks from the hundred are these stories :
1. The Rocket
2. The Beggar On O’Connell Bridge
3. The Flying Machine
4. Banshee
5. The Illustrated Man
6. The Dragon
7. The Kilimanjaro Device
8. Bless Me, Father, For I Have Sinned
9. Death & The Maiden
10. All On A Summer’s Night
Note : Read this book ! Just pick this up and start reading NOW !