I'm not sure how active the board has been lately and the last time I tried to log on, things were acting strange.

Anyway, for Christmas my lovely wife got me a copy of Farewell Summer. I'm wondering if anyone else has read it and what everyone's impressions were.

I enjoyed the book and the story line and the "war" to prevent adulthood. Familiar Green Town with the ravine was very enjoyable to visit. I must say that the "Birthday Party and Haunted House" sections were my favorite part of the book. Nothing like a first kiss!

Best Wishes to all.

Blind Henry

BH! We've missed you! Lotsa activity on the old board-a-roony. And there's been quite a bit of discussion, too, about "Farewell Summer"...

quote:

Originally posted by Blind Henry:
I'm wondering if anyone else has read it and what everyone's impressions were.

It was a lightweight Dandelion Wine, but even as such, stood head and shoulders above most literature coming out these days.

Mind you, this was a fine book, but my point is that even average Bradbury (which this was not!) is better than most folks better works. A compliment.

I thought it was an enjoyable read. I loved the imagery: The clock, the chess pieces, the war between the two generations.

The story moved pretty quickly, too. It was high on the readability scale.

As in many Bradbury stories, the key to victory in life is in love. The war ends when the older man throws a party and gives a cake to the kids. The kids (Douglas, primarily) are reconciled to him, and all gets better from there.

I also thought it was interesting that Bradbury ties "life" (for men) in their relationship to their organ. At the end, the boy becomes a man, and that is signalled by a new anatomical experience. As the older man passes away, he enjoys one last arousal. This seems to signify a hand off of life from one generation of men to another. How many other writers can get away with this without it leaning toward something erotic? Bradbury sees this, not as a point of eroticism, but as a symbol of life.

In some ways, a common theme to the short story, "Junior". At 82, a man wakes up "excited". He calls three old girlfriends to come and see it. Everyone is amazed. But it dies down and he drifts off to sleep.

What is the relationship between a man and his reproductive power? How does that tie to life?

A niece in college--a long time Bradbury fan--read this and said something like, "Well, I guess this is something women need to understand about men".

Pretty interesting.

Mr. Dark, I,too, was surprised ay Ray's comments on Calvin Quatermain's last "hurrah" so to speak. In fact I asked Ray about this in a phone call, and he said that, "yes, that was something I had to look forward to in forty years." Well, since I am 62 now, it will be less time than that. But still I was surprised at his depicting such an experience of the old man and the young Doug Spaulding.

Anyone else with an observation?

That chapter made the entire book real for me, and in the famous Bradbury style of understatement. I loved "Junior" for the same reason, it is reality and told in so sensitive a manner that we all can appreciate the sensations the words evoke from the page. I love this man for his ability to do that with words, telling, all the while, the truth, in the softest of words that bring the reader to his feelings behind the words. I have read Farewell Summer now twice and each time the book only makes sense in the last chapter, when the torch is passed. Bravo.

It is definitely a part of life that we don't really address, but it happens to every male. We have the first real hello, and apparently will have the last hurrah--and it is tied to our sense of life.

I also thought the scene in the tent with the series of fetuses--showing how life really begins--is a part of Bradbury's effort in this novel to deal honestly with what life is. The arousals and fetuses are obviously tied to the scheme of life, also.

But in the end, as Bradbury has written in many places, the way to win life is to love--love life, love who you are, and love others. That is the key.