May 19, 2003 06:15 PM
9711 Views
(Updated May 19, 2003 06:15 PM)
This is a story about a 12 year old boy whose name is Douglas Spaulding and his experiences during the summer of 1928. The book starts at the beginning of the summer and ends with the coming of fall. It is a collection of Doug’s memories and lessons about life he learns during that summer.
At the very beginning of the novel, Doug finds out the magic of just being alive and enjoying the summer rituals like talking on the porch at night, or picking dandelions to make the wine. Doug also decides to keep make a list about the things they do every summer and another list of things. He also wants to buy new tennis shoes, which to a boy, bring the whole magic of summer.
The town jeweller, Leo Auffman thinks that there is too much sorrow in the world and decides to build a Happiness Machine. The machine show the person beautiful cities like Rome and Paris and other things that would make people happy. At first, it is a success but it is soon called the Sadness Machine because it makes people realize that they can never really go see Paris or Rome or any other beautiful place. It is his wife, Lena Auffman who makes Leo realize that the only things he needs to be happy are his friends and family.
Then there are other characters like the 72 year old Mrs. Bentley. She gets upset when the children think that she had never been young. Mrs. Bentley tries to convince the kids that she was a young girl once by showing them her old pictures. But, the children still don’t believe her as they can’t imagine the old woman as a beautiful young lady. Soon, she remembers her late husband’s advice: she should live in the present and not in the past; it is her memories that count, not the material things like pictures that she thinks will prove her young. She finally tells the children that she really wasn’t a little girl--she had always been 72.
I could go on with more of the brilliant characters in the novel and how they each learn a lesson: the young learn from the old and the old learn from the young. Here is a list of some of the other characters I liked: Colonel Freeleigh - he is an old man who the children call the “Time Machine” because he tells stories of the past. Helen Loomis and Bill Forrester- Helen is a 95 yr. old lady and Bill Forrester is a 31 yr. old young man. They share a brief romance which ends when the lady dies. Many more.....
The most touching part of the book is when Doug realizes that one day he too must die--like his great-grandma, Colonel Freeleigh and Helen Loomis. The death of the great-grandma teaches him that it is okay to die and she tells him that as long as she has a family to remember her, she will always be alive. After learning the harsh reality, Doug goes into a heavy fever and it is a breath of fresh air that makes him well and not materialistic or modern things like medicines.
There are so many events that take place during the summer. Some are comic ones like that between Clara Goodwater and Elmira Brown, while others are more serious and thrilling like the scene between the Lonely One and Lavina Nebbs.
This story brings back the childhood of Ray Bradbury, who like Doug grew up in a small town in the Midwest. His memories are bottled up like the dandelion wine. In this book we see Bradbury criticizing technology and change (like in Fahrenheit 451), while urging the reader that memories and experiences are the things that really count. Read the book and experience the magical summer of 1928.
