The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 20 March 2001
by Ray Bradbury
Generations of high school students have had to read this book. But it is a modern American classic, without a doubt (It was first published in 1953). This is the tragic story of Guy Montag and his world in the not-too-distant future. Montag is a fireman. In this dark future, a fireman's task is to start fires, specifically bonfires of books. Books are outlawed in his world, but this is more than a simple story of dictatorial censorship. The book is flooded with the hope and despair of a writer wanting humankind to learn from its historical lessons, and from the wisdom of its writers. Montag awakens to the potential of the books he is burning, but is it too late, and can he find anyone who share his dream? And the censorship that comes about in Bradbury's book doesn't start with a repressive leadership. It comes from below, from a populace sick of feeling inferior to "intellectuals", a populace benumbed by an onslaught of "entertainment". It is a culture utterly inured to dark realities by the lure of sedative fun. Sound familiar? Here is a none-too-subtle bite. In our real world saturated with advertisement, where corporations continually find new places to put TV screens, we are bombarded every single minute with a corporate image of the Good Consumer. We are allowed less and less time to think for ourselves. How many people today already resent "intellectuals"? No, we are not burning books, and massive bookstores are very popular (less so now, as Borders has vanished and Barnes & Noble has shrunk), but we still regularly ban books for one reason or another. Though much a product of its times, this book, sixty years later, remains hauntingly relevant.
In the Del Rey paperback version of this novel, Bradbury adds some notes on what else might have become of his characters, and a biting "Coda" on the absurdity of very real censorship that this novel about censorship has experienced over the years.
Also by Bradbury: [Death is a Lonely Business] [The Golden Apples of the Sun] [Let's all Kill Constance]