Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Format: Bargain Price
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: February 01, 1999
Publishing house: William Morrow
Sale Popularity Level: 405085
Studio: William Morrow
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Product Description:
Ray Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. Dandelion Wine stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author's most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small-town summer in 1928.
Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole wide world that lies beyond the city limits. It is a pair of brand-new tennis shoes, the very first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather's renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley's bell on a hazy afternoon. It is yesteryear and tomorrow blended into an unforgettable always. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.
Come and savor Ray Bradbury's priceless distillation of all that is eternal about boyhood and summer.
Amazon.com Review:
World-renowned fantasist Ray Bradbury has on several occasions stepped outside the arenas of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. An unabashed romantic, his very first novel in 1957 was basically a love letter to his childhood. (For those who want to undertake an even more evocative look at the dark side of youth, five years later the author would write the chilling classic Something Wicked This Way Comes.)
Dandelion Wine takes us into the summer of 1928, and to all the wondrous and magical events in the life of a 12-year-old Midwestern boy named Douglas Spaulding. This tender, openly affectionate story of a young man's voyage of discovery is certainly more mainstream than exotic. No walking dead or spaceships to Mars here. Yet those who wish to experience the unique magic of early Bradbury as a prose stylist should find Dandelion Wine most refreshing. --Stanley Wiater
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Rated by buyers -
Bradbury is mostly known as a fantasist who emerged in the golden era of science fiction. He largely explored the areas that would make Stephen King such a huge bestselling author (like supernatural horror in a small town).
'Dandelion Wine' is packaged as a novel about one summer in one boy's life, but it actually reads more like a collection of short stories. There is a diffuse array of characters and a lot of different episodes and incidents (true of many novels), sometimes with very little actually tying it all together as a unified novel.
Still, I think this work ranks up there with 'coming of age' novels like 'A Separate Peace' and 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. It is also interesting to compare how Bradbury handles his fictional small town with Harper Lee's in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Sherwood Anderson's collection 'Winesburg, Ohio' also comes to mind.
Many reviewers describe Bradbury's work as 'magical', and one could invoke a term like 'magical realism' with some justification. Also, this work is often described as dealing with childhood, but for all that it is obsessed with the themes of aging and dying. And the older characters take up much of the dramatic space.
Reading this book for the fifth time in my life, one criticism comes to mind: sometimes I wish Bradbury would settle on that one perfect metaphor to describe something, but instead he gives us a list, which sometimes overwhelms the previous sensations.
Perhaps the shame of Bradbury's sucess is that, coming earlier, he didn't get the sort of fame and recognition that Stephen King did. On the other hand, being associated with science fiction, fantasy and horror genres means he isn't considered a serious writer. Still, I think this should join the ranks of 'American classic literature' of the 20th century.
Rated by buyers 
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I very first read this around 30 years ago after gulping down a dozen or so of the Bradbury sci fi books. I was tiring of him and ready to move on when I discovered this little gem. What a treat; I was transformed into seeing the world thru the eyes of a 12 year old boy, where new tennis shoes can make you fly, and the Civil War veteran is a living time travel machine, and the fortune-telling machine gypsy needs to be rescued from the evil arcade owner.
I reread this recently in preparation to read the recently released "Forever Summer." The magic is just as strong this time around.
Rated by buyers -
This book came highly recommended, and I was expecting to fall in love with it. And although the language and images are poetic and beautiful, there isn't any single real storyline here. The book is composed of a series of interrelated short stories which chronicle the experiences of a young boy growing up in a small Illinois town during the summer of 1928. From these stories there emerges a picture of summer, gliding magically by. Some of these mini stories are quite good. They range from the light and humorous (for example, the Green Machine, and the use of grey magic to upset election results at the Honeysuckle Ladies' Lodge) to the dark (the Lonely One is on the prowl, and so far this summer he has strangled three women in a ravine). Overall, this book is beautifully written, but I am deducting one star because it lacks a compelling plot and a "what-happens-next?" factor, which unforuntately makes this book easy to put down.
Rated by buyers 
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My wife and I just had the joy of discovering Ray Bradbury's sequel to Dandelion Wine (1957), Farewell Summer (2006) in audio CD format.
Farewell Summer
It is a delightfully well read audio book. We looked forward to hearing a gracious reading of Dandelion Wine as well. Thankfully, we checked it out of the library. It is headed straight back to the shelves.
Dandelion Wine (2 CD Set)
As others have said, this 'dramatization' of Bradbury's earlier 'childhood memoir' is a disaster. The production values are non-existent; the readers cannot be heard and the hokey sound effects have you running for the volume knob to protect your hearing.
Dear Recorded Books, Dandelion Wine deserves a proper, unabridged reading. Please contact Ray Bradbury and make arrangements to accomplish this task. You know how to do it!
Rated by buyers -
I taught summer school this year, and I use this to "break the ice." We listened to the chapter about buying new shoes as a summer tradition and how "new shoes would make [him] run faster."
Dandelion Wine is more memoire, although it has some elements of fantasy in it. It's a feel-good book about being a kid, enjoying summer, and recognizing that life is passing but that what's in the here and now is as precious as the "Dandelion Wine" that the old people make and drink while you (as a kid) hang out under the porch listening to their stories. It's a coming of age book, while at the same time, being a snapshot of childhood.
This story, because it's set in the early 1900's, is timeless. It's a chance to think about endless summer. I paired it with the Beach Boys (which for my sophomores are equally old and classic!!!) and it was a hit.
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