While rooted in childhood, this book is very much an adult’s perspective on ideas of mortality. Douglas finds magic in the feeling of being alive in the summer and an elderly neighbor is considered a “time machine” because of the stories he can tell. The book is not science fiction or horror as it typical of Bradbury’s work, but contains aspects of these things. But it’s not a novel as much as it is an interconnected collection of short stories, several of which don’t involve the children at all. The main characters of the book are 12-year-old Douglas, his younger brother Tom, and their friend Charlie. Bradbury admits in the introduction that Waukegan is an unattractive, industrial city but for a child it was full of wonders, something the jibes with my own experience of growing up in a mundane Connecticut suburb. This book is a more personal work for Ray Bradbury, based on his childhood memories of summers in his hometown of Waukegan, Illinois (which he calls “Green Town”). My main memory is the scene where the main character’s grandfather is indignant when someone tries to convince him to get a lawn where dandelions won’t grow, and thus lose the main ingredient in the titular beverage (By the way, since this book is set in 1928, does making dandelion wine violate the Volstead Act?). However, there’s actually very little I remember of the book. I read Dandelion Wine 30+ years ago and it swiftly became one of my all-time favorite books.
Other Books I’ve Read By the Same Author: Publication Info: Tantor Media, Inc., 2010
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