Something Wicked This Way Comes was our book for November. As we met on November 1, we're still in the Halloween and Dia de Muertos mood.It was a beautiful fall night as Tammy greeted as her new place of residence. We missed Janie, Terry and Leslie and, of course, Lou and Darby. Diana joined us via phone as she was suffering from a cold. In fact, several of us had been sick since the last book club but, we seem mostly recovered.
Arnora was just back from her Trop-Rock Tour of Paris and Normandy. We enjoyed hearing about her adventures and seeing her photos. Arnora (she's been a busy girl), Diana, Lis and Laura were just back from visiting Lou in Florida.
Tammy made us a Taco Soup and Pam brought a Chicken Tortilla soup. Just what we needed on a cool fall night. Lis made some delicious enchiladas, Cara G brought a salad. Tammy also made homemade Sopapillas and Lis topped it off with ice cream. And, Arnora brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers and the lavender roses matched Lis' pants! We had the usual assortment of great wines, coffee and tea to round out our meal.
Our book, Something Wicked This Way Comes was authored by Ray Bradbury. He had written what he called, The Green Town Trilogy. The books were semi-autobiographical stories based on his childhood. Dandelion Wine, Farewell to Summer and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Our book takes place during the time of a fall carnival arrives in town. Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are boys on the verge of their 14th birthdays when they encounter a strange lightening rod salesman who announces that a storm is coming their way. The a dark and sinister carnival shows up on the heels of this announcement and sets the stage for adventure and coming of age.
Bradbury took his title from a line in Shakespeare's Macbeth. In Macbeth, three witches predict that Macbeth will be king but, under certain circumstances. Macbeth ignores the conditions and sets about to murder everyone who he sees stands between him and the throne. Our book was not quite that sinister. But, our lightening rod salesmen running into town and predicting a "storm" serves the same kind of ominous portend.
The book was well received over all rating a 3.84. We agreed that there were some problems with the writing. Bradbury tended to wonder off sometimes in his descriptions and that bogged down the action. But, I thought some of the writing was really beautiful. I particularly loved the part where Jim's dad was talking to the two boys in the Library. His prose describing why he loved his wife read like poetry to me.
I also particularly liked the use of the Carousel as a time machine that could speed up or slow down the aging process. When Diana, Rex and I were at the Buchart Gardens in Victoria, BC, we saw a beautiful carousel that now I'm sorry I didn't ride. I heard after the fact, that it's the fastest carousel and, not sure if this is true or not, but that if it went any faster they'd have to classify it a roller coaster! I wish I'd have found out for myself! I like the idea of "the faster it goes - the slower you age!" haha
I thought it was a fun read about two boys trying to uncover a mystery and save some of the towns people from the evil Mr. Dark. The story was actually based on a true evening in Bradbury's life when he came into contact with a Mr. Electrico at his local carnival. Mr. Electrico command that Ray, "live forever" and told him that he was the reincarnation of a friend who'd died in WWI. Ray went home and started writing and never stopped.
This book was all about ominous predictions and what you do about them. I had enjoyed the book but some of the slower writing had me ready to give it a 3.5. But, our discussion and some of the connections we made caused me to raise my rating to a 4.5.
Our next book club will be our traditional tea at Laura's and our book is the NY Times Bestseller, The Giver of Star.
