Short & Sweet Treats discussion

"A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a “dark carnival” one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark? Bradbury excels in revealing the dark side that exists in us all, teaching us ultimately to celebrate the shadows rather than fear them. In many ways, this is a companion piece to his joyful, nostalgia-drenched Dandelion Wine, in which Bradbury presented us with one perfect summer as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old. In Something Wicked This Way Comes, he deftly explores the fearsome delights of one perfectly terrifying, unforgettable autumn."

I can't wait to start this book. I'm a huge Bradbury fan.

I've read this book several times, but I never tire of Bradbury's almost poetic prose. At 73, I LIVED in the kind of towns he describes, so that when Jim and Will are lying in the grass, I can feel the prickling of the blades myself.

Bradbury's power of description is unique for me. When Will's father looks out the window as the two almost-fourteen year old boys are running (start of chapter 3), he says: "Why are some people all grasshopper fiddlings, scrapings, all antennae shivering, one big ganglion eternally knotting, slip-knotting, square-knotting themselves? They stoke a furnace all their lives, sweat their lips, shine their eyes and start it all in the crib. Caesar's lean and hungry friends. The eat the dark, who only stand and breathe. That's Jim, all bramble hair and itchweed."

I'm finding Jim Nightshade the dark center of the story this time around. He is fascinated by the "Theater", a window looking in on two people making love, while Will turns away. Will is the philosopher of the pair, captivated by the barber pole ribbon: "It's good to know, thought Will, it's be running until dawn, winding up from nothing, winding away to nothing, while we sleep." Will seeks the certainty of safety, while Jim races for the chaos of the unknown.

Really enjoying this book, my 4th time though. Strange how a book can mean so many different things depending on who WE are as the readers.

I read this book for the first quarter matchmaker. Although it took me awhile to get through it, I did enjoy Bradbury's eloquence.

"God how we get our fingers in each other's clay. That's friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of the other. "

I'm so glad I re-read this book! Wish there were more posts, but as Laura says, everyone joins in as much or as little as they wish in this group.

My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just finished. It took me awhile to get through it. I love and hate all the descriptive language in this book. I love how beautiful it is, but sometimes I just wanted to focus on the story and not all the extra stuff. Great good over evil story.

Hmm--and for me, the retired English teacher, the descriptive language is what I love lol. Good thing there is something in the book for everyone :-)

At 73, I have a visceral understanding of why Charles Holloway would like to ride that carousel backward--and Bradbury helps me accept the passing of time.

"She was fair as this morning and fresh as tomorrow's flowers and lovely as any maid when a man shuts up his eyes and traps her in cameo perfection, on the shell of his eyelids."

I'm about 40% through this book. It took me a while to get used to the style of writing. Now that I have, I have become sucked into the fantasy world of a dark circus. There are still times that the writing throws me out and I have to pull myself back in. It's not a easy read but I am enjoying it.

thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Julia! I always enjoy your perspective.

True, Alicia--and for this book to resonate with anyone, it asks the reader to go to some pretty dark places of childhood memory. I think that's why Neil Gaiman loved Bradbury so much--they both know that the "dark places" start in childhood.

Gaiman wrote this in his journal for June 6, 2012:
"I heard about Ray's death this morning, and it's knocked me for a loop, and for second loop because so many people are asking me to write something about Ray and what he meant, for them, right now. And it's too soon, but they need it. I'm writing something now. But I wanted to put this up. I wrote it a couple of years ago as an introduction to the PS edition of Machineries of Joy and it was reprinted in the Times. If you want to quote me, you can take anything you like from this, and add that he was kind, and gentle, and always filled with enthusiasm, and that the landscape of the world we live in would have been diminished if we had not had him in our world. And that I am so glad that I knew him."
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2012/06...
It's worth going to the link and reading Gaiman's preface to Machineries of Joy.

On that same day, Gaiman spoke with The Guardian in an article titled "A Man Who Won't Forget Ray Bradbury". In it he says of Bradbury:

"He was kind, and gentle, with that Midwestern niceness that's a positive thing rather than an absence of character. He was enthusiastic, and it seemed that that enthusiasm would keep him going forever. He genuinely liked people. He left the world a better place, and left better places in it: the red sands and canals of Mars, the Midwestern Halloweens and small towns and dark carnivals. And he kept writing.

'Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything,' Ray said once, in an interview.

He gave people so many reasons to love him. And we did."

I certain did as well. As a child of the Midwest, I can smell and taste my memories in the words of Bradbury--but then, I'm 73, and when he talks about a barber's pole spiraling into infinity, that memory is a part of me.

So to both Bradbury and Gaiman, I send thanks for their flow of language, their fearlessness in the face of the Dark, and their shared love of the world.

This is on my all time faves list. Beautiful, mysterious, dark, frightening and so redemptive. I read it often.

This was the very first book I had ever read by Ray Bradbury. I was still relatively young when I picked it up from the library for the first time, and its tone was so different from anything I had ever read. It was a story that has stayed with me long since closing its covers.

I followed it up with his Martian Chronicles. I've been a fan of science fiction, fantasy, and stories of good and evil ever since.

Wasn't this Bradbury's first true novel?

The majority of his "novels" were just "fix-ups" which basically means related short stories that were edited (or not) to make them fit as a single story.

Even much of Fahrenheit 451 is pieced together from previous short stories and a novella.

He has HUNDREDS of short stories, but only around half a dozen true novels.

There's this book (second in a trilogy), then the last of the trilogy (Farewell Summer), then there's a trilogy of mysteries which I haven't read.

Are there any others real novels besides those five? I guess The Halloween Tree could be considered a novel, but it's so short I'd rather call it a novella...

Personally, I think Bradbury works best in the short story format. He can get a bit long-winded sometimes when he's writing novels. Though I admit that opinion was formed mostly from reading Fahrenheit 451 and starting one of the mysteries.

My favorite part of Something Wicked This Way Comes is Will's and his Dad's conversation on their front porch. Mr. Halloway shows his wisdom and experience in his speech.

"Sometimes the man who looks happiest in town, with the biggest smile, is the one carrying the biggest load of sin. There are smiles and smiles; learn to tell the dark variety from the light. The seal-barker, the laugh-shouter, half the time he's covering up. He's had his fun and he's guilty. And men do love sin, Will, oh how they love it, never doubt, in all shapes, sizes, colors, and smells..."