Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury opens with twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding eagerly embracing the first day of his summer holidays. It is the summer of 1928 in a small town in Illinois. Doug experiences the world around him with a newly-found understanding of the ephemeral nature of time and of his own mortality.
Soliciting the help of Tom, his younger brother, Doug aims to freeze time by recording every unusual occurrence in the town. These occurrences include purchasing a new pair of sneakers; rescuing a mannikin from destruction; listening to an elderly man as he brings history to life; accompanying a neighbor as she launches a takeover bid for the presidency of the Honeysuckle Ladies Lodge. The events run the gamut from the mundane to the profound, from the delightful to the frightening. At times, Douglas is a participant; at others, he is a passer-by, observing and recording. Through it all are the bottles of dandelion wine, processed daily during the warm summer days to be savored and enjoyed during the cold, winter months. Like Douglas’ written record of events, each bottle of dandelion wine conjures up a different memory of a significant event that occurred on a specific day in the summer.
The tone throughout is nostalgic. Bradbury captures a time and place when life seemed simpler; when neighbors helped each other out; when the traveling junkman saves a seriously ill child by encouraging him to breathe bottles of air captured in far-off places; when children are invited on the last trolley ride in town or to enjoy an unusual ice cream flavor at the local drugstore. The events are episodic in nature in a series of interconnected, poignant short vignettes, some of which don’t involve children, but all of which contribute to the fabric of life in a small town in the summer of 1928.
Bradbury captures the magic in the mundane. He describes the children’s flights of imagination in words of bubbly profusion. The unusual juxtaposition of descriptive language and the manner in which some words tumble after each other is very much reminiscent of the exuberant poetry of Dylan Thomas. The episodic quality brings to mind the fabric and texture of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegone books.
There is an enduring quality about this novel that addresses a universal need to hark back to a time and place when life seemed simpler, when children were loved and protected, when they could thrive in nature and community, and when they could enjoy the freedom and exuberance of the carefree summer months.
A joy to read.