Along with the famous novels "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles", the work "Dandelion Wine", written on the basis of the author's biography, entered the golden fund of world literature. Popular and still, it opens before the reader pictures of not only childhood, but also adult life, and sometimes even death.
The first question is: who is this novel for?
Most of the works of fiction are clearly ranked by the age of the reader: children's literature teaches good, adolescent - courage, literature for adults gives lessons on all topics that a person encounters in life. So "Wine …" is, despite its apparent adolescent orientation, literature for adults. However, it may well be accepted by the younger generation, because its main characters are children. The thing is that people here not only rejoice, have fun and be a little sad. People also get sick and die here.
Question two: what is this novel about?
In the center of the story are the brothers Douglas and Tom Spauldings, young and impressionable guys, like sponges absorbing the events of every summer day. Also, the main character can be called the summer itself, which brings more and more discoveries, sets more and more new tasks that help to understand ourselves. The guys do not just live this summer, they experience it like the first time, because despite the fact that most summer activities are repeated from year to year, this summer is remembered for many small and large innovations. These innovations do not always turn out to be pleasant, some of them will even end with the death, but that is why the novel is considered timeless, ageless - because everything really happens in it, as in real life. Does Ray Bradbury spare heroes? Not. Will they remain the same after this summer? Not.
The third and last question is: what is the value of this novel?
In the books of Ray Bradbury, there is everything: joy, and light, and print, and fears, even vampires are. "Dandelion Wine" captured all the values of childhood and, to some extent, the summer growing up of children, absorbed all their small (and in fact, big) summer problems, found trails of mutual understanding between people of different ages and consolidated all contacts of the little town with a variety of emotions. The heroes of the novel - all together, not just the children - prepare wine from dandelions and bottle it, walk in the dark through a terrible ravine, run fast in new tennis shoes, ride the last tram, steal dolls from the theater and take offense at friends who are leaving them. … They also age, prepare luxurious dinners, fear for each other and believe - in summer, in miracles, in themselves. This novel is not about children. This is a novel about adults who were once children.
