Bradbury's 'Dandelion' sequel a 'Farewell' to youth

Fiction

Farewell Summer

By Ray Bradbury

William Morrow, 211 pages, $24.95

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American literary icon Ray Bradbury has finally published thelong-awaited sequel to his now classic young adult novel, DandelionWine. Set once again in Greentown, Ill., Farewell Summer continuesthe story of young Douglas Spaulding as the summer of 1928 turnsinto fall.

Bradbury worked on the sequel on and off over the years but onlyrecently reached the point where he felt it was ready to send outinto the world.

The sequel began as the back half of the original manuscript ofDandelion Wine, but an editor suggested to Bradbury that he hadwritten not one but two novels. Wise man that editor. Now, 50 yearslater, we see how right he was.

The edgier Farewell Summer is about a war between children andold people, whereas Dandelion Wine is about an intense nurturingbond between the old and the young. Read together, the juxtapositionis jarring as the time continuum suddenly shifts between childhoodand young adulthood for 13-year-old Doug.

In Farewell Summer, Doug and his friends, lamenting the end ofsummer -- no more fireflies, lemonade and staying up late -- devisea plan to stop time so they can be boys of summer forever. Theirenemy is the large clock in the town square; their weapon is a roundof firecrackers.

In the process, Doug and his gang come up against four old-timers, led by the cantankerous school board president, CalvinQuartermain, who berates them to grow up. As the old man "chewed onhis hatred," the youngsters taunt him with their cap guns, determinehe is "not human" and plot to never end up that way.

In and around the action, Doug learns his first lesson about whatit means to be a man. There's also a first kiss involved.

Farewell Summer will be of little interest to anyone who has notread Dandelion Wine. Both books grew out of Bradbury's memories ofhis idyllic Midwest childhood spent in Waukegan and that palpablefeeling of small-town life is the force that drives them both.

Yet, despite some beautiful imagery and well-crafted prose,Farewell Summer doesn't develop much of a plot but rather meandersalong to a predictable end. The best bits in the slim novel are whenBradbury allows himself to wander around in the imaginative minds ofold men and young boys.

Despite a promising start, Farewell Summer, with its incessantmessages about growing up, loses that glow of discovery and good-hearted exuberance found in Dandelion Wine. This is a darker,tougher Doug who is just beginning to understand that thosechildhood days are not going to last forever.

Mary Houlihan is a Sun-Times feature writer who grew up in small-town Wisconsin and couldn't wait to get out.