Farewell Summer makes me long for my youth -- specifically the part of my youth before this book was published. I thought I couldn't dislike anything written by Ray Bradbury, but this proved me wrong. This trunk sequel should never have seen the light of day. I will spend the rest of my life trying to erase it from my memory -- particularly the ludicrous ending where the old man has a fond farewell conversation with his erectile capabilities (really) and bequeaths them to his young protege. Really, Ray? Really?

WOW! Real emotion! I cannot remember the last time that an author caused me to close a book and take a moment to sob like what happened with this book today. Perhaps I read too much and have become jaded, but thankfully Mr. Bradbury broke through for me! I have waited for this book for most of my life as it is a sequel to "Dandelion Wine" which is one of my favorites. This book is powerful in its beauty and emotion and the thought it provoked in me. Parents, there are some adult themes here, please read this before allowing your children to read it.

Some quotes....

"Anything that moves ahead, wins. No chess game was ever won by the player who sat for a lifetime thinking over his next move."

"Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get."

"Life should be touched not strangled. You've got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it. It's like boats. You keep your motor on so you can steer with the current. And when you hear the sound of the waterfall coming nearer and nearer, tidy up the boat, put on your best tie and hat, and smoke a cigar right up till the moment you go over. That's the triumph."

"Look, life gives us everything. Then it takes it away. Youth, love, happiness, friends. Darkness gets it all in the end. We didn't have enough sense to know you can will it - life - to others. Your looks, your youth. Pass it on. Give it away. It's lent to us for awhile. Use it, let go without crying. It's a very fancy relay race, heading God knows where."

"The worst thing is to never grow up. I see it all around...If you want them unhappy, don't force people to grow. Baby them. Teach them to nurse their grievances adn grow their private poison gardens. Little patches of hate and prejudice."

"I'm only mean in private. I don't blame others for my own mistakes. I'm bad in a different sort of way than you, of course, with a sense of humore developed out of necessity."

As a sequel to "Dandelion Wine" this was a bit of a disappointment. For a sequel, I suppose, you expect 'more of the same', and this was nothing like "Dandelion Wine" by a long shot. So, it took me a while to get over this and take the book for what it is. It wasn't much help that Bradbury's language seems to have become even more cryptic, if possible.

The book has a brittle feel to it - everything is sparse, concise, dry, nothing of the lush, juicy fullness of "Dandelion Wine" - and after a while it occurred to me that this is the work of a very old man (published in 2006 - when Bradbury was 86!) - and that seemed to make sense. However, this is also of particular interest to the story, as it is about young boys (the protagonists of "Dandelion Wine") fighting age and time in a pointless way by *literally* fighting the old men of the town and the town clock - and about the old men retaliating - a story about the strife of life and death, youth and aging. This element of it I found fascinating, as well as the structure of the book. It is very short, more a novella than a novel, and possesses the tight and meaningful structure common to that genre (at least in German literature) - for example, the climax (the destruction of the clock) happens at pretty exactly half way through.
I'm sure there is also meaning attached to the division into three parts - however, these parts are named after battles of the US Civil War, so it would take some knowledge of that war in order to understand their meaning.

In summary, then, it is a very interesting and meaningful text that can keep you busy thinking about it - even *contrasting* it with "Dandelion Wine" would make for interesting analysis - it's just that marketing it as a 'sequel' to "Dandelion Wine" doesn't work so well with the common expectations from that term, in my opinion.

Ray Bradbury. Dreams, fantasies, thoughts, life too hard to bear, poetry, prose knit from dreams. Read some Bradbury.

It's a sweet ode to the end of childhood but it does not have th charm or the magic of Dandelion Wine.

"Farewell, Summer. Here it is. October 1st. Temperature's 82. Season just won't let go. The leaves won't turn." from Farewell, Summer by Ray Bradbury

I read Farewell Summer on the last day of summer.

My electric company had sent me a warning email that my bill would be twice as high as last month's. We had been running the air conditioner for weeks because of the high humidity and 90-degree weather, accompanied by thunderstorms. The bees were visiting the Sedum Autumn Joy since most of the other flowers had gone, except the roses which are still blooming their hearts out.

But a few days later as I write this post the change has come. We expect our first frost. The apple tree has some yellowing leaves. I left my window open last night but pulled my quilt up to my chin. The house was chilled this morning. Farewell, Summer.

If only life were only about the changing of the seasons, but with the change comes the recognition that life is moving on, the months are ticking off another year. I am growing old. I tried to hang onto youth, like Doug and Tom in Bradbury's fictional Illinois town, resentful and obstinate, sure I would never grow old. I would die first. Instead, I turned sixteen and suddenly I was married and then I was old.

A sequel to Dandelion Wine, written 55 years later, Bradbury returns to childhood's grappling with the awareness that comes after age nine, the knowledge that we grow old and die. Doug and Tom go to war with the old men. They think they know how the old men control the boys' destiny so they become men. Steal the chess pieces! Break the clock!

Couched in the language of war, the last chapter is Appomatix. Mr. Quartermain, the old man who resented the boys, and Doug who waged war on the old men sit down together.

"What is it you want to know?" Quartermain asks Doug.

"Everything," said Douglas.
"Everything?" Quartermain laughed gently. "That'll take at least ten minutes."
"How about something?" asked Douglas finally.
"Something? One special thing? Why, Doug, that will take a lifetime. I've been at it a while. Everything rolls off my tongue, easy as pie. But something! Something! I get lockjaw just trying to define it. So let's talk about everything instead, for now."

I was so blown away by the writing, the word choice, the insights, I could have highlighted pages of favorites sentences. For #SundaySentence hosted on Twitter by author and 'book evangelist' David Abrams, I shared this lovely quote:

Grandpa's library was a fine dark place bricked with books, so anything could happen there and always did. All you had to do was pull a book from the shelf and open it and suddenly the darkness was not so dark anymore.

Last year I read Dandelion Wine with book club, my first reading since I was a teenager. Then I reread Something Wicked This Way Comes, which I also last read as a teenager.

Frankly, I could easily make it a habit every year of reading Dandelion Wine and Farewell, Summer both on the Autumn Equinox. The older I get, the more I have to learn from children.

Kartais būna kai pirma istorijos knyga yra geriausia ir labiausiai patinkanti, o bandymas rašyti tęsinį gaunasi visiškas nesusipratimas. Kaip ir daugelis čia skaičiusių ir davusių vieną ar kelias žvaigždutes už šią knygą, tikėjausi tęsinio, kuris lyg ir papildytų pirmąją knygą. Deja to nebuvo, knyga skaitėsi sunkiai, siužetas nė kiek nesudomino. Realiai galėjau likti skaitęs tik pirmąją dalį ir to būtų visiškai pakakę. Pasidomėjęs sužinojau, kad knygos turėjo būti kaip viena knyga, bet leidėjai pasakė, kad per stora ir paliko likutį, šiai knygai. Kai pirma istorijos knyga yra mano favoritė, taip šita visiškas šlamštas.

this was so confusing and almost impossible to read. i usually like ray bradburry a lot but when he was adviced to not publish this work, they were really trying to do him a favour. this should have stayed a draft for all eternity

Evocando los primeros días de octubre, cuando aún no se siente del todo otoño, pero sabes que el verano ya no vuelve,de la mano de un hermoso lenguaje y bucólico,del que no me canso, Ray Bradbury clausura esta saga de Greentown que es terriblemente bella y nostálgica ✨

Colmado de preciosas metáforas, la principal, que lleva el hilo conductor de la historia: la guerra, que se declara a la madurez, a crecer, y la rebeldía a abandonar la infancia y dejar de ser un niño, como la oposición a que acabe el verano y comience el invierno. Pero también guerra entre las generaciones, entre los deseos de los niños y las expectativas de los adultos mayores sobre la juventud. Esa generación de mayores (que siempre los ha habido) que no miran el futuro de la sociedad con esperanza, si no por encima del hombro, con superioridad y desde el prisma de “nosotros no éramos así a su edad”, que no es más que el hastío por no compartir y sentirse parte de ellos.

Es una fábula que refleja el miedo a envejecer de la juventud y el rechazo despertado por la envidia del que ha vivido y ya no va a volver el tiempo atrás. En la que Bradbury aprovecha para criticar como por un lado, se denosta a las personas mayores creyéndolas inservibles, y que su existencia simplemente ofende, porque recuerda que la vida tiene una duración y todo termina; y convierte a los “viejos carcamales” en los enemigos del relato, no por ser mayores (porque los abuelos del protagonista no entran en esa categoría) si no más bien por esa actitud ante la vida y esa mirada hacia la infancia de manera negativa. Y por otro lado, como las personas mayores que no tienen contacto con la juventud rechazan su presencia, solo porque les produce soledad al verse alejados de ellos.
Un abismo que se crea entre dos generaciones, que no es insalvable, pero que requiere voluntad por ambos contendientes y reflexión.

Me sigue sorprendiendo la forma en la que describe y trata la infancia, como si no hubiera perdido jamás la conexión con ella, tan en contacto con su niño interior, que los diálogos que reproduce y la forma de pensamiento son totalmente la de un grupo de niños (eso si: los 12-13 años de cuando escribe la novela, no son los de ahora)

Al final habla de aceptación, de avanzar y de no apegarse y de la importancia de conectar, crear vínculos y pasar el testigo

Very good, though it was missing some of the magic of the first book in the series. I thought it was better than the second book in the series though. Fast fun read.

Probably not one of my favorite Bradbury novels, but still full of the poetry and thoughtfulness I love so much. And there were some scenes and some lines of dialogue that hit me right in the heart.

I love the way Bradbury can take the reader back to a place and time, even if it’s before they were born and someplace they’ve never been. He has a gift for putting you right into his characters’ lives, seeing the world through their eyes. I’ll happily take those qualities in any book I’m lucky enough to read.