Mini Review: Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine (1957)
Ray Bradbury (William Morrow, 2006)
281 p. First reading.

Bradbury's book is a superb evocation of childhood, with its surprises, unguessed wonders, and adventures. It is the summer of 1928, and young Douglas Spaulding, twelve years old, resident of Green Hill, Illinois, has discovered that he is alive, and is determined to live this summer with his eyes, ears, and heart wide open. His story is told through a series of short episodes, interweaved with glimpses into the lives of other residents of his small town.

What I admired most about the book was Bradbury’s success at capturing the special qualities of childhood: the immediacy of experience, the sense of the world full of possibility, the tireless play through long summer days, the hot nights under stars, the sheer alertness of the mind and senses. I was reminded of Chesterton’s observation, from his autobiography, that childhood is “like a hundred windows opened on all sides of the head.” Bradbury has thrown those windows open and let the summer air, filled with the warmness of clover breath and the buzzing of bees, blow through his pages.

There is more to the book than summer idylls. There are some dark corners here and there, in this town as in any other. Douglas not only discovers that he is alive, but also that he will one day die. But this only makes each day more precious, and Douglas more alert and alive, treasuring up memories like summer’s yield of dandelion wine: “The words were summer on the tongue. The wine was summer caught and stoppered.”

My thanks to Jill for recommending this book to me. She also informs me that there is a sequel, entitled Farewell Summer.