Dandelion Wine - BOOKS.HCCP.ORG

English language

(2 reviews)

Dandelion Wine is a 1957 novel by Ray Bradbury set in the summer of 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois, based upon Bradbury's childhood home of Waukegan, Illinois. The novel developed from the short story "Dandelion Wine", which appeared in the June 1953 issue of Gourmet magazine. The title refers to a wine made with dandelion petals and other ingredients, commonly citrus fruit. In the story, dandelion wine, as made by the protagonist's grandfather, serves as a metaphor for packing all of the joys of summer into a single bottle. The main character of the story is Douglas Spaulding, a 12-year-old boy loosely patterned after Bradbury. Most of the book is focused upon the routines of small-town America, and the simple joys of yesterday.

6 editions

Caffeinated Book Dragon reviewed Dandelion Wine (Green Town, #1) by Ray Bradbury

Took a bit to get into, but it gained momentum and I'm glad I stuck with it

3 stars

This book was a bit tough for me to get into at first. It took some careful reading to get the gist of what it was all about, and then it was so simple...almost. It's a summer story, the summer of 1928 to be precise.

It's kind of interesting because it's a story that gets you really thinking about the minds of kids, and what they think and what they believe, such as the belief in some kids that old ladies were never little girls, or that you could bottle memories in dandelion wine.

I think the story had a bit of magic in it, I just wish it didn't take so long for me to get into it. But once i did, I kept going at it. It's definitely different than what I'm used to with Bradbury in a sense because at first it didn't seem like a lot …

This book was a bit tough for me to get into at first. It took some careful reading to get the gist of what it was all about, and then it was so simple...almost. It's a summer story, the summer of 1928 to be precise.

It's kind of interesting because it's a story that gets you really thinking about the minds of kids, and what they think and what they believe, such as the belief in some kids that old ladies were never little girls, or that you could bottle memories in dandelion wine.

I think the story had a bit of magic in it, I just wish it didn't take so long for me to get into it. But once i did, I kept going at it. It's definitely different than what I'm used to with Bradbury in a sense because at first it didn't seem like a lot of little stories of summer rolled up together. But once the variety of characters and their issues showed up, then it grew into something more familiar. I'd recommend anybody to at least give it a shot.

Youssef | يوسف reviewed Dandelion Wine (Green Town, #1) by Ray Bradbury

Preserving the summer

5 stars

Dandelion Wine is a coming of age story, infused with the magic of childhood. It's about that first discovery and sharp awareness of being alive, and the attempt to relish every day of the summer. But that sense of life always comes with its twin shadow: the realization of mortality, the experience of loss, friends leaving, and the death of someone you love. What's at stake is to always reaffirm that first sensation of life. For this a new kind of magic is needed: the ethics of passing over the help your received onto others. Summer will be gone but we can preserve the wine of summer in bottles to help us through the winters to come. This is our mundane act of creation that sustains life in all its mystery.