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Something Wicked This Way Comes

I have a lot of things to review from this weekend, but I'll start off with Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury. This will be my last Bradbury review for a long time, as I have gone through all the books we own by him.

This story begins with two friends, Will and Jim, who are sold a lightning rod from a salesman on the eve before an evil carnival comes creeping into town. Will and Jim, as well as Will's father (a man in his fifties, who looks much older but longs to be young again), are excited by the idea of the carnival. The boys sneak out to watch it set up, and later sneak out to watch the after hours activities... and are soon sorry for it.

It doesn't take long for a tattooed man (that's right the Illustrated Man, whose tattoos' story I've already read in the book named after him) and his circus partner to show up, followed by an insane series of event involving a carousel that can age or "de-age" people, an evil blind lady in a balloon who can hunt people down with her senses, the lightning rod salesman becomes a dwarf, their math teacher gets involved with a young and suspicious nephew, and Will's dad becomes an integral part of the story..

I enjoyed reading this story in a different sense from Bradbury's others. The setting isn't in the future, and doesn't brood quite as heavily on social, technological, and religious issues. Instead, it's a story set in the regular 1960s with a supernatural experience, and it revolves around issues of good vs. evil. What really struck me this time around was Bradbury's use of language. His words seem to swirl in and out around each other, creating an urgency, and painting a complete picture of both the visual and the emotional setting of each scene.

In the end, it's an exciting story, but has a lot more depth than just that. The father-son relationship, the friends' relationship, the talk about "autumn people", and much more make it a complete story, which stayed with mefor a while after I set the book down.

Next up: I'm taking a short break from my alphabetical sequence of authors for two books. The first is Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynn Truss, which takes a zero-tolerance approach to grammatical errors. I've read about 70 pages so far, and it's hilarious. The second is The Phantom of the Opera by Loreaux (sp?), which I am reading in anticipation of the movie coming out in December. No, I haven't seen the musical, but I think it's best to start with the book. I started reading it yesterday when the in-law dropped Truss's book into my lap, and I immediately switched books. A review on the ES&L book will come as fast as my eager little eyes can read it.

Posted by wendytime at September 20, 2004 08:35 AM | TrackBack