Ray Bradbury weaves an anthology of his short stories together in this novel about the magic of growing up, nature, and summertime. Douglas Spaulding, experiencing perhaps his last summer of pre-adolescence, still exemplifies many boyish traits in both his exuberance as well as his view of the world, yet the rites of passage that he undergoes leave the reader with a feeling that after his next school year, he will be well on his way towards adulthood. Throughout the book, Bradbury shows the boy’s journey through his view of life as immortal, his parents as infallible and infinitely brave, and the concept of aging and the sadness that often accompanies it. The title comes from Bradbury’s concept of the eternal summer, symbolized by dandelion wine. Dandelions are definitely a summer flower, and are as bright and perhaps cheerful as the summer sun, but the wine is bitter but satisfying—much like the remembering summer during the deepest depths of winter.
Review
Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors, and Dandelion Wine is in my top five favorite books of all time. My favorite times to read this book are in the late spring, right before summer bursts forth, and in the middle of winter as a literary version of the book’s namesake. Bradbury portrays the innocence of youth in such a way that I suspect my ninety year old grandmother could read the book and remember her carefree days quite easily. Dandelion Wine is a fairly quick read, but since many of the stories stand alone as short stories in Bradbury’s other anthologies, it is safe to dog-ear the book and go to sleep at the end of a chapter.