Ray Bradbury is one of my favourite writers of all time, and this collection of short stories once again showcases a brilliant sense of imagination brought to life with the sheer passion of creation. As always, the stories are set anywhere from down the street to some distant planet in some distant future. And as always, each story gave me something new to think about, something new to wonder at. Here are my favourites:
“Chrysalis” starts with an innocent enough question that may have crossed many minds: does a black person get sunburned? From there the story goes on to explore - over the course of a summer break - racism. This was a brilliant story that laid bare a culture that was brutally racist, and featured a friendship that was refreshingly colour-blind.
“Sometime Before Dawn” - stories like this are part of the reason I am in awe of Bradbury. A boarding house somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Two travelers whose mannerisms and words are just a little unsettling … This really is an experience you should discover on your own, so I will say no more.
“We’ll Just Act Natural” - and stories like this are the other part of my ever-increasing respect for Bradbury. He has this amazing ability to dip into one ordinary little event, and draw an entire mural of the human nature from it. This is the story of a black woman who is waiting for a visit from a white man, whom she had raised as a child. Very touching.
“The Mafioso Cement-Mixing Machine” is about a man who decides to go back in time to save Scott Fitzgerald so that he can finish writing ‘The Last Tycoon’. This was such a fantastic idea, and its execution was also so brilliant: the way the man creates his ‘time machine’, added to the fact that there was no “cop-out” and we do get to see the end result, made this a very interesting read.
“A Matter of Taste” - this was absolutely fantastic! It was about a group of astronauts that lands on a planet inhabited by a race of intelligent spiders. Set in a sci-fi setting, this was such a scathing comment on human beings’ repetitive tendency to fear and then murder anyone or anything that does not fall with their limited walls of acceptance.
“I Get the Blues When it Rains (A Remembrance)” - although this story was really all about Ray Bradbury describing a very special night, when he and a group of writers got together and sang songs, it touched me on a very personal level. It was a poignant reminder of the fact that even when life moves on to bigger and better things, there is always one cherished part that is forever left behind.
I can’t end this blog without mentioning the “Epilogue: The R.B., G.K.C., and G.B.S. Forever Orient Express” - this was a final tip of the hat to the great writers that were and probably never will be again. Bradbury often mentioned his deep respect for writers such as these and expressed his deep desire for his work to be put on the same bookshelves … I do hope he knew that his work is of the same greatness, and has opened up innumerable worlds of awe and wonder in countless hearts.
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