Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Book Review)

Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury

179 pages
Ballantine Books, 1953
dystopian novel
Finished in 1 day
Another Review...

My Rating: ★★★★

Amazon.com / BN.com

"It was a pleasure to burn."

Review: I'm almost ashamed to say this was my first time reading this book. I say almost because I'm glad I'm reading it an age where I feel I'm truly able to understand it and appreciate the message Ray Bradbury, I think, was trying to convey. I'm also amazed it was written in 1953 because so much of what he warns against is parallel to what is happening in our freedom loving society today.

I wanted to quote this book but found I wanted to quote every word. But there are some amazing  moments in the book that I feel attention must be paid to. Now, if you're like me and have never read this book let me tell you briefly what it's about. This takes place, surprisingly, around the time of the 2020's. Not too far into the future today, but in the 1950's I can see how it would work. This book is told from the point of view of a fireman whose occupation it is to start fires, not put them out. Montag doesn't just start fires any where he pleases. His job is to burn any and all books, including the house where those books are discovered. Why the firemen go from starting them instead of putting them out I'll leave for you to discover on your own.

Don't worry, the book is only about 170 pages and if all you seek is the answer to some basic questions, you will find them in the first part of the book . What I found most profound was when Captain Beatty (Montag's boss) explained to Montag why it is they do what they do. In a matter of what was probably a ten minute conversation he explains history and why the world changed as rapidly as it did. The Captain feels compelled to share this history with Montag because he's concerned that he might quit due to what took place the night before, causing Montag to question things more than just his job.

I would probably go insane, like most people did in this story, if I couldn't read books anymore. I'd hoard them best I could and be a recluse in my house with the windows always closed and covered, inviting no one inside, fearing they'd smell the mounds of books I had hidden throughout my house. There's something about the feel, smell, and togetherness of a book I could never part with nor do I ever get from the new technology of e-readers.

I hope I have peeked your interest a little bit to seek out and read this book? I tried not to reveal any spoilers. I hope I did that some justice. And because I felt a few quotes NEEDED to be put in my review, below is one to wet you whistle and I'm SURE will make you want to read and learn more...

“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.”

Summary: Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

First published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is a classic novel set in the future when books forbidden by a totalitarian regime are burned. The hero, a book burner, suddenly discovers that books are flesh and blood ideas that cry out silently when put to the torch.

To learn more about Ray Bradbury visit his website.