Synopses & Reviews
In a summer that refuses to end, in the deceiving warmth of earliest October, civil war has come to Green Town, Illinois. It is the age-old conflict: the young against the elderly, for control of the clock that ticks their lives ever forward. The first cap-pistol shot heard 'round the town is dead accurate, felling an old man in his tracks, compelling town elder and school board despot Mr. Calvin C. Quartermain to marshal his graying forces and declare total war on the assassin, thirteen-year-old Douglas Spaulding, and his downy-cheeked cohorts. Doug and his cronies, however, are most worthy adversaries who should not be underestimated, as they plan and execute daring campaigns matching old Quartermain's experience and cunning with their youthful enthusiasm and devil-may-care determination to hold on forever to childhood's summer. Yet time must ultimately be the victor, with valuable revelations for those on both sides of the conflict. And life waits in ambush to assail Doug Spaulding with its powerful mysteries the irresistible ascent of manhood, the sweet surrender to a first kiss...
One of the most acclaimed and beloved of American storytellers, Ray Bradbury has come home, revisiting the verdant landscape of one of his most adored works, Dandelion Wine. More than fifty years in the making, the long-awaited sequel, Farewell Summer, is a treasure beautiful, poignant, wistful, hilarious, sad, evocative, profound, and unforgettable...and proof positive that the flame of wonder still burns brightly within the irrepressible imagination of the incomparable Bradbury.
Review
"A follow-up to Bradbury's 1957 novel, Dandelion Wine, this Tom Sawyer-meets-Peter Pan novella is creepier than the first book but retains the elegiac tone and lovely descriptions of 1920s boyhood." Library Journal
Review
"A thin work, heavily reliant on dialogue, but one that serves as an intriguing coda to one of Bradbury's classics." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[Bradbury's] prose remains masterfully precision-tuned. A touching meditation on memories, aging, and the endless cycle of birth and death, and a fitting capstone, perhaps, to a brilliant career." Booklist
Review
"Summer draws poignancy from the half century dividing it from Wine, but feels like an afterthought. (Grade: B)" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Farewell Summer is filled with beautiful imagery....Bradbury is at his best when fantasizing what goes on inside the brains of young boys and old men. And like many of Bradbury's recent stories, it's a gossamer-thin book that's rich in detail but slight on plot." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Review
"Only Bradbury's still-elegant and evocative writing salvages the book. Farewell Summer was worth waiting for because we get to revisit Green Town, hang out with Douglas and get a glimpse of life as Bradbury saw it in 1928." San Antonio Express-News
Synopsis
The master of American fiction returns to the territory of his beloved classic, Dandelion Wine a sequel 50 years in the making.
Synopsis
The master of American fiction returns to the territory of his beloved classic, Dandelion Wine--a sequel 50 years in the making
Some summers refuse to end . . .
October 1st, the end of summer. The air is still warm, but fall is in the air. Thirteen-year-old Douglas Spaulding, his younger brother Tom, and their friends do their best to take advantage of these last warm days, rampaging through the ravine, tormenting the girls . . . and declaring war on the old men who run Green Town, IL. For the boys know that Colonel Quartermain and his cohorts want nothing more than to force them to put away their wild ways, to settle down, to grow up. If only, the boys believe, they could stop the clock atop the courthouse building. Then, surely, they could hold onto the last days of summer . . . and their youth.
But the old men were young once, too. And Quartermain, crusty old guardian of the school board and town curfew, is bent on teaching the boys a lesson. What he doesn't know is that before the last leaf turns, the boys will give him a gift: they will teach him the importance of not being afraid of letting go.
Synopsis
In the deceiving warmth of earliest October, civil war has come to Green Town, Illinois, an age-old conflict pitting the young against the elderly for control of the clock that ticks their lives ever forward. The graying forces of school board despot Mr. Calvin C. Quartermain have declared total war on thirteen-year-old Douglas Spaulding and his downy-cheeked cohorts. The boys, in turn, plan and execute daring campaigns, matching old Quartermain's experience and cunning with their youthful enthusiasm and devil-may-care determination to hold on forever to childhood's summer. Yet time must ultimately be the victor, as life waits in ambush to assail young Spaulding with its powerful mysteries—the irresistible ascent of manhood, the sweet surrender of a first kiss . . .
About the Author
The author of more than three dozen books, Ray Bradbury is one of the most celebrated fiction writers of our time. He has written for the theater and cinema, and has been nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. He lives in Los Angeles.