Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury  267 pp.

I read this many many (many many...) years ago and really didn't remember much about it. When I found the audiobook I decided to give it another go. I was completely charmed by this book. It takes place in the summer of 1928, in Green Town, Illinois. The main character is Douglas, who grows up a lot in that brief time. He starts out the carefree summer of his twelfth year picking dandelions for the wine his grandfather makes, plotting a way to get new sneakers, and revelling in the contents of the junkman's wagon. During these simple acts, he comes to the realization of what it means to be alive. But with that realization comes the knowledge that life isn't always wonderful. He rides the town trolley on its last trip before it is retired in favor of buses. His best friend moves away. A neighbor fails in his attempt to build a "happiness machine". His great-grandmother dies, as does the elderly Civil War veteran Douglas and his brother nicknamed "the time machine" for all the stories of the past he told. The local newspaperman strikes up a friendship with an elderly woman who regales him with tales of her world travels before she too succumbs to death. There is even a serial killer in the small town, preying on young women when the moon is full. Douglas has his own brush with death when a mysterious fever has him in its grip. In the end, though, he and his brother look at the bottles of dandelion wine on his grandfather's shelf and they are convinced that they will always remember every day of that summer forever because they are so full of life and the promise of the future. Bradbury has created a believable town populated with characters you wouldn't be surprised to find there. I'm sorry I waited so long to read this one again.