С ночным боем часов на городской ратуше семидесятилетний старик беседует со своей последней эрекцией, а к тому времени, как часы завершают третий удар, уже знакомый мне по первой книге Дуглас встречается со своей первой. "Мы ещё встретимся, дружок? Конечно, утром я проснусь раньше тебя." Теперь попробуйте представить себе этот эпизод в контексте непорочного "Вина из одуванчиков" и вы поймёте, почему одно произведение распилили на два. Да просто книжка эта - своеобразный мостик, перекинутый от детей к старикам, минуя все промежуточные возрастные группы. У них там вроде как война. Местами очень смешно, а иной раз трогательно. Но в целом, (о ужас, да я, оказывается, ханжа) книжка дурацкая. И не продолжение "Вина из одуванчиков", и не начало, а не пойми что. Так-то всё понятно, не понятно только зачем всё это. Именно поэтому Брэдбери, наверное, и составил послесловие с пояснением. Всё равно, что оправдывается, мол это нужно было ему. Ну да, ему и его фанатам. Я очень люблю Брэдбери, но "Лето, прощай" мне страшно не понравилось. И ведь выбрал, как мне казалось, идеальное время для этой книги: когда зелень ещё бушует, но ветер пахнет осенью. Мне даже казалось, что обязательно нужно с чем-то попрощаться... Такая подготовка колоссальная была перед прочтением. Какая чепуха! Не обязательно к прочтению.
As a sequel to "Dandelion Wine" this was a bit of a disappointment. For a sequel, I suppose, you expect 'more of the same', and this was nothing like "Dandelion Wine" by a long shot. So, it took me a while to get over this and take the book for what it is. It wasn't much help that Bradbury's language seems to have become even more cryptic, if possible.The book has a brittle feel to it - everything is sparse, concise, dry, nothing of the lush, juicy fullness of "Dandelion Wine" - and after a while it occurred to me that this is the work of a very old man (published in 2006 - when Bradbury was 86!) - and that seemed to make sense. However, this is also of particular interest to the story, as it is about young boys (the protagonists of "Dandelion Wine") fighting age and time in a pointless way by *literally* fighting the old men of the town and the town clock - and about the old men retaliating - a story about the strife of life and death, youth and aging. This element of it I found fascinating, as well as the structure of the book. It is very short, more a novella than a novel, and possesses the tight and meaningful structure common to that genre (at least in German literature) - for example, the climax (the destruction of the clock) happens at pretty exactly half way through.I'm sure there is also meaning attached to the division into three parts - however, these parts are named after battles of the US Civil War, so it would take some knowledge of that war in order to understand their meaning.In summary, then, it is a very interesting and meaningful text that can keep you busy thinking about it - even *contrasting* it with "Dandelion Wine" would make for interesting analysis - it's just that marketing it as a 'sequel' to "Dandelion Wine" doesn't work so well with the common expectations from that term, in my opinion.
What do You think about Farewell Summer (2006)?
This is a sequel to Dandelion Wine. In an afterword, Bradbury says that originally Dandelion Wine was longer but the material that went beyond the end of the book as printed was cut in response to his editor. He carried on working on the novel...for fifty years! Is it worth the wait? Oh yes...yes it most definitely is. Tree-men-dous. (Not bush-woman-doesn't.) THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICYSee the complete review here:http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/33...
—Robert
This is one of the many books on my list to read that I know I will never reach so I'm supplementing some on audio.This is a mock dreamlike fantasy tale of kids versus very old men in a small American town. The boys don't want to age and therefore lose their youth and the old men want to keep experiencing emotions through the faculties of the young.Poignant with poetic descriptions yet some might argue not a lot is happening and the final resolution ends at a low.Robert Fass does a good job with the many voices, especially those of the kids. BBC Audiobooks America put this album together. OVERALL GRADE: B minus to B.
—StoryTellerShannon
If you were to read this book on the face of it, only on the narrative and the language, you would have a beautifully written book where not much happens. There is a rivalry between Doug and Mr. Quartermain that is on the surface very childish.However, the real work of this book is done with its theme. I've seen some reviews of this book that were disappointed it wasn't more in the style of Dandelion Wine. I think it is a mistake to think of Farewell Summer as a direct sequel to Dandelion Wine. It is, of course, a sequel, but it is a sequel in the way that ray Bradbury in his late 80's was a sequel Ray Bradbury in his early 30's. Dandelion Wine was a book about summer, a time that belongs to children. Ray Bradbury, at that stage in his life was refusing to grow up, holding on to the childish sense of wonder that he wrote with for his entire life. It is Bradbury following Mr. Electrico's command to live forever, and feeling he might find a way to do just that. Farewell Summer is the mortality of an 80 year old man who has done his best to make that summer last forever, but knows that autumn is coming. It is full of symbols of life, beginnings and ends, time, and seasons passing. Some of the symbols are blunt. Others are barely brushstrokes.This book is very short. The 204 pages are more like 100. They are practically double-spaced and the font is large. But there is a lot that goes on between the covers, and while the story doesn't tell us much that happened to Doug that summer, it tells a lot about what happened with Bradbury's views over the course of his life.
—Jack
