From the Dust Returned

Customer Reviews:

His masterwork

By Rob Damm - November 13, 2001

If I could blame one author for my life-long obsession with the printed word, Ray Bradbury would be a likely scapegoat. His strange and sad stories are so braided with my own memories, it's sometimes hard to sort them out. After years of studying and teaching literature, I still maintain that Bradbury is a visionary. Yes, in my studies I've encountered plenty of cynics who would mock him as a sappy crackpot, but my love for his skewed tales has survived. That said, I strongly believe "From The Dust Returned" is his strongest work. A novel even the most screw-faced doubter must grudgingly admit is brilliant. I'm not trying to be grim when I say this, but it strikes me at once as the sort of book which could only be written by a great man near the end of his life. It has a sweeping, elegiac quality and easily meets all the expectations one might have for a novel 50 years in the womb. Of course, it is full of the fantastic, the sad, the phantasmagoric-- all crystalized in the... read more

Mr. October hits another home run

By C. Fletcher - November 1, 2001

Never mind Reggie Jackson. I've always thought of Ray Bradbury as Mr. October. Hearing the name Bradbury conjures images for me of street gutters overflowing with piles of slick autumn leaves, the air saturated with the sharp scent of woodsmoke. Bradbury means brief, shadow-strewn, priceless afternoons seamlessly spilling over into long, sweet-smelling nights. It means being a child and falling in love with reading for the first time. It means being in love with life and being amazed by all of the possibilities of the imagination. Bradury also means combating the forces that would strip these feelings of freedom from your soul. Bradbury is a force for good, a medicine for melancholy, and as such, never goes out of style. Ray Bradbury's new book, From the Dust Returned: A Family Remembrance, his first novel of the 21st century, began life over fifty years ago, in the first half of the 20th century, as a short story called "Homecoming." Originally published in the 1946 Halloween... read more

BRADBURY AT HIS BEST

By S. F Gulvezan - October 9, 2001

For many years Ray Bradbury has either been ignored or judged harshly by most critics. The people who appreciate him most are fellow-writers (such as Stephen King) who understand what he's doing, and the millions of readers who continue to read and re-read his books. What Ray is doing is writing some of the best fantasy stories and novels ever written. One hundred years from now I'll bet most of the critics' current darlings will be long forgotten, but that Bradbury, like E.A. Poe, will still be widely read. This latest novel is something of a miracle. In it, Ray has returned to the family of extraordinary characters he created in the 1940's in great stories such as "Uncle Einar" and "Spring Witch" and written about a reunion of this family. This is fantasy at its best and may be one of the best books in Ray's long career. I salute you, Ray Bradbury, for providing me with a lifetime of insight, unforgettable stories and characters, and all-around great... read more