What Did you think of Dandelion Wine? Did it touch you, Confuse you, or just entertain you? What made you want to read it for the first time 2nd or even 3rd time?

I liked the book because it was a reflection of many children I know, Douglas in many ways was like people I know and in others he was unique and indidual. It was an awesome book that I wouldn't mind rereading.

Dandelion Wine moved me immensely, and despite my middle-age, middle-class existence, I believe it has the power to move readers of all ages, all backgrounds.

I’ve long touted the opening essay as one of the best pieces of writing that Bradbury has ever constructed about his artistic intent, and despite my misgivings about his poetry, I even found the poem within the essay, Byzantium, to be among his finer efforts. The story, or, rather, stories, that follow are brushed by genius, deftly balancing the fine line between remembrance and sentimentality. F-451 may be a bolder, more controlled work, The Martian Chronicles e more original in scope and execution, Something Wicked a terribly exciting, frightening read, most of the short stories fantastic in every sense of the word, but my favorite Bradbury work is Dandelion Wine, a book I return to nearly every year just before the beginning of each golden summer.

I cannot recommend it too highly.

"...the bee-fried air, by God!"

Ditto Pterran. One of the finest masterpieces of literature in any language.

Ditto Pterran and dandelion. When I was young I spent a lot of time in the library and decided to try “Dandelion Wine”. I read a few chapters and put it down, disappointed because it wasn’t Science Fiction. In later life I went back to it and just inhaled it. Only one book has given me more pleasure. “David Copperfield”.

I have added Big Fish to a Sr. lit. reading list. I watched the movie again last night in an attempt to capture more of the nuances that make the move, I believe, quite worth seeing.

My thoughts continued to run to Dandelion Wine. My conclusion, Tim Burton seems to be one of the few directors who would do justice to a movie version of the novel.

With all of the compromise that Hollywood has applied to Mr. B's works in the past (and recently - it "Sounds"), maybe the classic DW would be done well with the right person in charge.

As for DW, I have added the words Of Col. Freeleigh to a 12th Gr. unit on war lit. (ie, All Quiet, Catch 22, Night, Slaughter House 5)The Col.'s comments to the boys about what he saw and heard, suggesting that he had forgotten whom he had fought for, and then the narrative interspersed with lines from C.W. songs of the time... just great!

If you haven't read this section in a while, go back and re-visit the imagery of RB at its best.

I believe that I mentioned this before on another post, but can you imagine that after all of these years (having been given a signed copy by Ray in 1967) and later another autographed copy dated 1988, I just realized that I had NEVER read the book! And I not sure just what happened. I am half way through now and it is interesting to note the short stories that have been crafted together to comprise DW.

It is of a summer that seems to last forever as opposed the slip-bys that us older ones now experience.

An excellent read filled with vivid word pictures and more.

Biplane,if you have a Bantam copy of DW, try the Colonel's words: pg.80-87. Let me know what you think. "Rumble!!"

I'll check it out! Thanks, Frank. Hope you are enjoying getting back to the school year. The kids started August 12th down here if you can believe that.

Frank, I just reread the pages you indicated and it is something that I have thought of a lot. My adoptive father is 84 and stilll sharp as a tack. He and an uncle are the ONLY ones left of a generation of my aunts, uncles, grandparents. The others have died and all of their thoughts, memories, their Time Machines, have long been lost.

I ask my dad to sit down and write of his experiences in WW II, of different things in his life, etc. I think that the efforts of some to acquire "living histories" of taped conversations with those in later years, the Colonel Freeleighs and their own respective Time Machines, are fantastics efforts and should be continued, the tapes being archived where all could benefit.

In a way I was disappointed with Sam's biography of Ray. There are so many other things about Ray I want to know. What was he like as a father with his four daughters? We got a glimpse, but nothing in depth. What kind of food has he enjoyed, did he ever cook, did he have other interests (hobbies) other than his writing, etc., etc?

Ray, being 85, is a Time Machine, and, to some extent, we get an appreciation of why or how a story that he wrote came to his mind. I always enjoy reading these as an afterword or foreword to his collections and have mentioned this to him.

Now that I have just turned 61, I am feeling old, but a Time Machine, I think not. What do I have recollections of--the Viet Nam war? growing up in the 1950s and 60s as you did Frank, or what? But we are all potential Time Machines? Some are going to have more interesting anecdotes to relate than others.

I didn't mean to ramble on here, but am I anywhere near what you may have been thinking?

I love the whole book but the section you folks are talking about is one of my favorites.

Question. Has there ever been or can anyone set up a list of chapters to “Dandelion Wine” with first lines so it can be adapted to any edition?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chapter 31,

What a wonderful entry, biplane 1. How many thousands of stories and memories are lost daily?

Around 4th or 5th grade, my father showed me some of his WWII memorabilia. When I asked what a particular medal was, his eyes welled up and he left the room.

Years later, I had the honor of interviewing several veterans for feature articles I was writing for a newspaper. I shook the hands of two Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. I particularly remember an unassuming sewing machine salesman who piloted a Liberator in Europe in WWII, and a Navy man who served on the New Jersey.

During the course of these interviews, I finally learned why my dad was so emotional about that one medal. It meant--that he'd survived; he had lived through the South Pacific.

One of the most profound aspects of Ray's writing is his attention to time. So too, each of us can capture and share those instances of our lives before they vanish in the wind.

We're all the time machine, a legacy to generations future, if that's what we choose.

I agree with Chapter 31's experience. When I read "Dandelion Wine" in HS, it really didn't do much for me. I was looking for sci-fi and fantasy.

I re-read it a couple years ago (and am working on a DW chapter in a book I'm working on), and found the book to be amazing in its lyricism and sense of nostalgia.

I agree with the comments on Bradbury as a master of the issue of time in his writing, but am also impressed (as I just commented on in the F451 thread) that Bradbury also writes in a way that lets us know that people matter. You can even see this in his biography by Sam--there are so many anecdotal accounts of Ray meeting people who influenced his life. It is one of the reasons he is so generous with autographs and speeches and appearances--he understands that his life has impact. That we all have an impact on each other. And that a life lived in isolation is an incomplete life.

Dandelion Wine is masterful at showing the interconnections between the people and in their time and place. A truly great book!

I like episode about 'Old fashioned lime-vanilla ice' most of all.

And also these lines are very meaningful to me: 'Douglas stood that way for a full minute, waiting for the sound of the running to fade, but it did not stop. He's still running away, but he doesn't sound any further off, thought Douglas. Why doesn't he stop running? And then he realized it was only the sound of his heart in his body.' It's about John Huff going away.

quote:

Has there ever been or can anyone set up a list of chapters to “Dandelion Wine” with first lines so it can be adapted to any edition?

It's already been done. Here are the "official" titles to the chapters, as given in The Ray Bradbury Companion:

Illumination
Dandelion Wine
The Sound of Summer Running
The Season of Sitting
The Night
The Lawns of Summer
The Happiness Machine
Season of Disbelief
The Last, the Very Last
The Green Machine
The Trolley
Statues
Magic!
The Window
The Swan
The Whole Town's Sleeping
Good-by, Grandma
The Tarot Witch
Green Wine for Dreaming
Dinner at Dawn

Plus eighteen "bridge-passages" between chapters.