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Title: Death Is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury ISBN: 0-380-78965-5 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.18 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent book to rediscover Bradbury with!
Comment: I bought two of his newest books, one of which is the aforementioned _Death is a Lonely Business_. I began reading it late last night and just finished it a little more than an hour ago. Technically, it's not a fantasy or science fiction, but it is such a great book, in my opinion, that I had to put a review of it somewhere.
_Death is a Lonely Business_ is Ray Bradbury's tribute to Hammet, Chandler, Cain and Ross McDonald. It is a very engrossing noir detective story, with the young Bradbury as the main character. More or less. The main character is a struggling, starving writer living in Venice, CA with a girlfriend studying in Mexico. Strange deaths begin occuring around him, seemingly triggered by a mysterious encounter with a man he calls at one point "Death's friend".
With the aid of a detective and a reclusive, yet very much alive actress, he attempts to unravel the mystery before the people he most cares about come to harm.
Bradbury's writing style, though for some perhaps a bit wordy and "purple", pulls the reader into the story, making him feel and see the world through the eyes of the main character. Once I began reading it, I found it very difficult to stop and go to school; I wanted to keep reading until the end.
The story itself, through the deliberate use of death and loss, affirms life and demands that the reader seize the moment and pursue life, happiness, and even pain. For by avoiding pain, we die a slow, lonely death.
In short, it is a book that I would highly recommend to anyone, even those dyed-in-the-wool single genre people. This has strong fantasy elements in it, and plenty of references to other books and stories by Bradbury.
What a pleasant and welcome way to rediscover a favorite author.
Rating: 5
Summary: Loved it
Comment: I have to admit that I've never really been a fan of Bradbury. In school I read a couple of his short stories, which were pretty good but not amazing - I always thought Asimov wrote better - and the only novel of his I had read before this one was Farenheight 451, twice, and both times I found it to be among the most dull books I'd read. However, reading the back of this paperback in a used book store, I decided that he was worth another try for $1.25.
I immediately began to enjoy it. The almost filmoire style of the writing appealed to me for some reason, though there a couple lines I had to reread in order to see what he was getting at. The main character (I started calling him Jesus because that was the way Crumley often referred to him) was in a state of near desperation the whole novel, but it wasn't completely overdone, at least in my opinion. Frankly, if I was stuck in a hell-hole like Venice, CA I would be the same way.
I would definitely recommend this book, though maybe I'm simply a weird guy who likes weird books.
Rating: 4
Summary: A great new twist for Bradbury
Comment: Ray Bradbury, as his fans know, is a man who has published a lot of works through the years -- over 500 -- but only a handful of novels. Most of his novels, in fact, are expanded versions of his short stories, e.g., Fahrenheit 451. Death Is A Lonely Business, a very good title from a man who is a master of titles, published in 1985, was his first novel since 1962's Something Wicked This Way Comes. What a surprise, then, it was for me to find this overlooked gem at my local library for a mere 50 cents. It is something one would not expect Bradbury to write: a detective story. Of sorts. This genre, previously monopolized in the science fiction realm by Isaac Asimov (as was everything else), turns out to fit Bradbury's writing style surprisingly well. As anyone who has read the author knows, he has a unique and very distinctive style -- poetic, atmospheric, and highly literary. Arthur C. Clarke has termed him a "prose poet", and this description works quite well. His aforementioned style, which is very complex and literary, would seem, on the surface, ill-suited to a hard-boiled detective novel and destined to be relegated to the short story -- as, indeed, much of Bradbury's work is. His writing style and use of imagery is very dense and literate, too much for some, and is often difficult to hold up over the course of a novel. This novel, like much of his work, contains very vivid poetic descriptions and not a few fantasy elements, and the reader is often left unsure whether a given sentence is meant to be taken literally or only figuratively. This was a problem for many readers with Something Wicked This Way Comes, a novel that had a very simple plot -- one might almost say, with its two child protagonists, that it was written for teenagers -- but this issue, thankfully, does not come up during the course of this interesting and very engrossing novel. Though this is, essentially, a detective story, it does not escape Bradbury's distinctive touches. His style is omnipresent throughout. It proves to be very engrossing. The first chapter -- the book's sections are not technically separated as such, but the definition will work fine -- pulls the reader in, and it is very difficult to put it down: I read the book nearly in one sitting. Bradbury pours on the suspense and the keeps the reader reading. His poetic descriptions of Venice, California's broken-down piers and carnival scenery are vivid and very atmospheric; the descriptions are beautiful prose to read, mysterious and alluring, dark and brooding. Any long-time Bradbury reader will immediately appreciate this aspect of the novel. The book is also loaded with literary references, to Brabdury's own work and to a vast number of other authors. This is a treat for the author's faithful readers and shows the author's encyclopedic knowledge of literature. In addition, the novels main character, by whom it is narrarated, is a highly autobiographical character clearly modeled on Bradbury's own early career. All of this is very good, certainly enough to recommend the novel. The only reason I have given it 4 stars is the ending, which is a very jarring anti-climax. The final revealing of the murderer is not a surprise, and the way in which he is caught is very unrealistic and hard to believe. This will probably frustrate the reader, as it did me, putting an ill-conceived end to an otherwise excellent novel. Stil, the book is well-worth reading, as Bradbury usually is, and this flaw only dims one's enjoyment of it somewhat. Highly recommended for Bradbury fans, or those who enjoy the noir mystery genre and are looking for something with more of a twist than they usually get.
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Title: A Graveyard for Lunatics: Another Tale of Two Cities by Ray Bradbury ISBN: 0380812002 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 26 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Let's All Kill Constance : A Novel by Ray Bradbury ISBN: 0060515848 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 24 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, Joseph Mugnaini ISBN: 0375803017 Publisher: Yearling Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: The October Country by Ray Bradbury, Joe Mugnaini ISBN: 034532448X Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Dandelion Wine (Grand Master Editions) by RAY BRADBURY ISBN: 0553277537 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1985 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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