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A review by incipientdreamer
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
4.0
4 star
Bloody brilliant! Every time I pick up a famed classic, I read it with a grain of salt. Classics being a product of their time are often full of racism/sexist or homophobic comments. Not to mention the hype that books like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 have. I am, what the kids call, an Orwellian antifan. With Fahrenheit 451 compared to George Orwell's works, I was scared I might not like it either.
The 60th Anniversary Edition that I bought had an introduction by Neil Gaiman, and once I read it, I knew I was going to love this book. The sheer simplicity with which Bradbury presents a world not so different from our own. It would be rather a stretch to label this as a dystopian/futuristic novel, because so much of what he talks about is rampant in today's society. With the recent censorship of Maus, the events of Fahrenheit 451 almost seem terrifyingly normal.
The imagery was another aspect that I loved about this book. The way Montag's perspective on fire changes from the first page to the last. He still finds it beautiful but in such drastically different ways. Clarisse was probably the best part of the book, even if she was a bit of a manic-pixie-dream-girl. I just loved her bits. My copy of the book is full of highlights of her dialogues <3.
A wonderful book, one that will stay with me for a long time. While the ending was a bit open-ended, I didn't really mind because the whole process of Montag being enlightened was so brilliantly done, the way the state addicted the masses to tv shows, and everything Captain Beatty said. It made up for pretty much any flaws the plot had. A must-read for every book lover!
“Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door...Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?”
Bloody brilliant! Every time I pick up a famed classic, I read it with a grain of salt. Classics being a product of their time are often full of racism/sexist or homophobic comments. Not to mention the hype that books like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 have. I am, what the kids call, an Orwellian antifan. With Fahrenheit 451 compared to George Orwell's works, I was scared I might not like it either.
The 60th Anniversary Edition that I bought had an introduction by Neil Gaiman, and once I read it, I knew I was going to love this book. The sheer simplicity with which Bradbury presents a world not so different from our own. It would be rather a stretch to label this as a dystopian/futuristic novel, because so much of what he talks about is rampant in today's society. With the recent censorship of Maus, the events of Fahrenheit 451 almost seem terrifyingly normal.
“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”
The imagery was another aspect that I loved about this book. The way Montag's perspective on fire changes from the first page to the last. He still finds it beautiful but in such drastically different ways. Clarisse was probably the best part of the book, even if she was a bit of a manic-pixie-dream-girl. I just loved her bits. My copy of the book is full of highlights of her dialogues <3.
“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”
A wonderful book, one that will stay with me for a long time. While the ending was a bit open-ended, I didn't really mind because the whole process of Montag being enlightened was so brilliantly done, the way the state addicted the masses to tv shows, and everything Captain Beatty said. It made up for pretty much any flaws the plot had. A must-read for every book lover!