The October Country: Stories

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Holy s*** that is annoying, annoying. I recommend this collection, collection, to fans of Bradbury, Bradbury, but to everyone else, else, there are better short story collections out there, out there. Below are my scores for each story, story, and a cumulative score for the book as a whole, whole: The emissary is a dark story with elements of horror, perhaps it could even be said to be a horror story. It tells a story of a boy who because of his illness has to stay in bed. However, the boy has a dog who brings him news about the outside world. That's just the start, but I don't want to spoil the ending so I won't say much. It was an interesting story to read, I liked the dark atmosphere. Los Angeles artist Joseph Mugnaini, who had provided illustrations for the stories and the cover of The Golden Apples of the Sun, as well as the iconic cover art of the paper man aflame that appears on the first edition of Fahrenheit 451, made illustrations—sui generis pen-and-ink drawings that are mysterious and haunting—for several of the tales in The October Country, an addition that heightened the book’s tonal quality. “The custom of artist-illustrator and mythologist (which is what a good writer should be) working together,” said Bradbury, “is as old as the Greeks, Romans or name any other culture of some two-thousand-plus years ago. They are amiable cross-pollinators of one another.” The October Country consists of nineteen stories, fourteen of them reworked versions of stories originally collected in Dark Carnival (1947). The remaining five are collected here for the first time in book form. These haunting stories explore none of the themes that dominate Ray Bradbury’s later work. They are weird tales of ghosts, vampires, and everyday people caught in impossible situations or saddled with dark obsessions. El cuento que cierra el libro, "La maravillosa muerte de Dudley Stone", no narra la muerte física de ese personaje, sino de su muerte literaria y de cómo esta, paradójicamente lo mantuvo vivo el resto de sus días.

One thing I have to mention, because I've seen it in numerous Bradbury books now, is Bradbury excessively repeating himself! What...is..up...with...that? It's like he's trying to make everything sound like an echo, or pad his word totals so he can get his work to a publishable length. He often repeats entire sentences, not just individual words. Why didn't any of his editors mention it or remove these repetitions? It's really, really annoying...especially since he does it about a hundred times per book. Here are some examples: The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone:A most remarkable case of murder—the deceased was delighted . . . So what about the 19 stories here, you ask? Well, like I said, there were ups and downs. My favourites were The Scythe" is another great one - solid, well-told, well-imagined, painful. Another great idea that doesn't need world-building or explication - just accept it - because Bradbury is such a good storyteller why would your ruin the story with more questions? It's like reading a young, creative person's first realization that death isn't fair and logical. Dwarf" - A little strange, ends before it should for me, no clear denouement, but a good little morality tale.Uncle Einar" is, of course, not really a horror story, more of a weird tale in that fine old tradition. It's also one of his stories about "The Family" that eventually influenced Charles Addams. It's probably the slightest of those Family stories (Cecy's story, "The Traveler" is really dark!) and I've never read Bradbury's late-in-life reworking of this material into a novel-form, because I feel so close to "Homecoming" and The Family, et. al (having discovered them at exactly the right moment of my childhood). But this one is a wonderful bit of dark fantasy, touching and sweet.

The Small Assassin: A fine, healthy baby boy was the new mother’s dream come true—or her worst nightmare . . . The contest has resulted in all that you will read here. The Small Assassin is, of course, me. The Homecoming family is my Waukegan hometown family, surrounding me in my youth, prolonging themselves into shadows and haunts when I reached maturity. Skeleton resulted from my discovering the bones within my flesh, plus seeing the pale skull ghost of myself in an X-ray film. An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation."-- The New York TimesWhich of these nineteen stories appeals to you most will depend upon your sensibilities as a reader. For me, a highlight of this collection is “The Next in Line,” a longish story that takes its time unfolding a thoroughly disconcerting plot. A couple, Joseph and Marie, are traveling in Mexico, and find themselves in a town where the chief attraction is an underground cemetery where the dead whose families can no longer pay the grave rent are disinterred to spend eternity as decaying mummies displayed for the curious. The Small Assassin" is a genuine classic, postpartum depression twisted into a horror tale before there was even a term for it. The last line is a killer and the modern resonances it brings, of abortion and sociopatholgy, are especially powerful. What a great story!