Saturday, September 19, 2015

Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

For all that I LOVE to read books, I usually don't like "the classics."  Many are gloomy or depressing. I get that many authors are plumbing the despair of the human condition, or making a point, or expressing outrage at the world system, but I usually read for fun.  I don't like depressing.

Fahrenheit 451 is a classic, I think. And to my total delight, I LOVE the book.  It is AWESOME.

It was written a long time ago, in the 1950's, and describes a dystopian society where "firemen" don't put out fires, they start fires to burn books.  I think many people who talk about the book talk about it in terms of book censorship, but the issues are way larger than that.  Essentially, the culture described in this book has embraced pleasure and simplicity and destroys books because no one wants to really THINK or grapple with difficult concepts.

It is a powerful book.  With lots of amazing ideas. AND, the prose is...wow...just...phenomenal.  Wow.  I mean really, Bradbury paints pictures with words like Van Gogh painted pictures with oils.

Given that my life consists largely of cleaning and cooking and disciplining 4 year olds and changing diapers, I relish times when my brain is engaged intellectually. This is an intellectual book in some ways, but also -- not really fun, I would say, but so fascinating it IS fun. I mean, we're not talking humor here. It's not amusing.  It is soul searching. It is penetrating.  It is good.

I read it because I've assigned the book to our big girls, who are working through a Christian based study guide produced by Progeny Press.

I think I'm more enamored with the book than the big girls are but that's Ok -- we don't always get to read books we love. And this book is worth reading.  Highly recommended.


1 comment:

Sarah said...

I read this in high school, I should read it again.