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Brandi Meineke, Collection Development Specialist
9/6/2011 3:51:31 PM
Freshman year of high school I found my favorite book. I feel privileged that I found it so young. From that first assigned excerpt, I fell in love with Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine. For me, this book is magical. I will forever be indebted to my English teacher for that school copy that got “lost” right before the summer of 1998 (exactly 70 years after the novel is set). My dismay over only being able to read the first few pages about a happiness machine gone wrong must have touched this wonderful teacher. I remember asking her if I could borrow a copy and promising her that I would return it before the impending last day of school before summer vacation. This would have given me less than a week to read this book—a week that was full of final exams and projects. I remember her finding a dusty, worn copy of the book in her closet. She handed me this abused little book and ,with a wink, told me that the school must have "misplaced this one." Even now, over a decade later, I read that same beaten up copy every summer. Not only was I so touched by the circumstances through which I received the book, but the story itself is still touching and changing my life.
This is a book full of many beginnings and endings. Loves, friendships, mysteries, adventures, lives, and especially the summer itself, are continually being born and dying, weaving together the tapestry of this book. Although I would never catalog Dandelion Wine as a collection of short stories, it does have many similar elements to this style. The story, set in the summer of 1928, focuses on two characters, Douglas and Tom Spaulding. Doug is 12 and Tom is 10. The two boys live in the fictional Midwest town of Green Town, Illinois. Through many vignettes the reader really gets to meet and know many of the town characters. It is through these characters' stories that important lessons are illustrated. One of the main underlying themes is understanding what is the past, what is the present, and what is the future, and how to accept them and let them be what they are.
"The Happiness Machine" was the first piece I ever read from this book, and it still continues to be my favorite. It is in these few pages that Leo Auffman (a minor character) sets himself to making a machine that will make anyone inside of it happy. What are the ingredients for happiness? Included are photographs from exotic destinations, sunsets that last forever, beautiful music, and decadent smells. Everything good is what Leo tries to include in his contraption. However, he ends up creating a sadness machine, as his son and wife discover. All of these good things are preserved and will last as long as one sits in this device, but it becomes a sadness machine because eventually everyone has to climb out of the box and back into the real world. They have to go back to the world where they will never see, hear, or smell the things that are forever frozen in time by Mr. Auffman's machine. And now they are aware of the things that they will never do. Happiness, as it turns out, is better found in the everyday world around us, not in impossible things that many waste their lives pursuing.
Certain parts of the book have changed drastically since I first read it. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say certain parts of me have changed. For instance, when I first read the book I felt young and invincible, but I still knew better than to go near the “witch house” that existed in my small, Midwest town. I remember counting my steps and holding my breath while running past this spooky dwelling on my way home from summer days spent playing. The "witch house" in this story is the Ravine, and it has a very haunted quality to it. Like my younger self, the character Tom is superstitious while crossing the Ravine, when he and his mom search for his brother Doug, who has stayed out way too late. Tom felt, just as I did, that boogeyman presence right behind, getting closer and closer. But, he knows that it’s okay to be scared because his mom is right there with him. Now an adult, I find that I relate more to Tom’s mom. She is crossing the Ravine holding her young son’s hand, looking for her other son. She doesn’t want to be in the dark trying to push away the thoughts of rumors that “The Lonely One” is back in town and killing women again. She has to act brave to not scare Tom, even though inside her heart is pounding and her knees are shaking with that ancient fear.
Dandelion Wine is an extremely important book in my life. I encourage everyone to read and enjoy it at least once. Read it in pieces or all in one sitting. Many books do not withstand the test of time, but Ray Bradbury has proved himself to be timeless again and again. Dandelion Wine, much like Fahrenheit 451 is still startlingly accurate and relevant today. I have a suspicion that it will still be tomorrow.
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