The October Country

Bradbury’s lyrical horror has aged pretty well, with the exception of a really stereotypical portrayal of an African-American in one story, complete with terrible dialogue (that’s not how AAVE works!). Men generally treat women with condescension, but they are not portrayed as right in doing so; their indifference to what women think is just part of the horror that our indifference to the subjectivity of others helps create. Bradbury’s repeating use of circuses, freak shows, exotic-to-the-protagonist locations, etc. helps highlight that the ordinary human heart is where the worst fears and hatreds lurk in his stories.

Bradbury is best known as a writer of science fiction, but most of the stories in this collection qualify as horror of one kind or another. It's a very effective collection of horror, in fact, largely because, over and over, it forces the reader to look mortality squarely in the face. "The Next in Line," for instance, features a description of mummified corpses in a Mexican cemetery that I'm pretty sure is going to haunt me for quite a while, not because it's gross or Halloween-scary, but because there's no escaping the awful, certain knowledge that one day, this will be you. And then there's "Skeleton," featuring a man freaking out at the realization that there is a skeleton inside him, which had me squirming uncomfortably in my chair show more feeling acutely, distressingly aware of my own skull and kneecaps. Some of the stories are more subtle, and some less so, but as a whole, it's a collection that really gets under your skin. So to speak. show less

I’m not a huge fan of short story collections, but this is by far one of my favorites. I love Bradbury’s work and these 19 stories are a stellar example of his skill. Equal parts creepy and poignant this stories dive into the dark hearts of ordinary people. From the terrifying look at parenthood in “The Small Assassin” to the aching desire to be someone other than yourself in “The Dwarf” I couldn’t put it down.

“The Lake,” “The Scythe” and “The Emissary” are all eerie tales you could tell around a camp fire. In “The Wind” I could feel my pulse quicken as I turned the pages. Bradbury has a way of writing such vivid descriptions you feel like you’re sitting right there experiencing the story alongside the show more characters. Read this paragraph and tell me it doesn’t paint an incredible image in your head…

“She ripped a dog-eared packet of cheap cigarettes like it was a bone with meat on it, snapped one of the cigarettes in her smeared mouth and lit it, sucking greedily on the smoke, jetting it through her thin nostrils until she was a feverish dragon confronting them in a fire-clouded room.”

BOTTOM LINE: Just fantastic! Short stories aren’t for everyone, but these gems are worth trying out. This would be a perfect book to pick up around Halloween.

Complete list of stories in this collection: The Dwarf, The Next in Line, The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse, Skeleton, The Jar, The Lake, The Emissary, Touched with Fire, The Small Assassin, The Crowd, Jack-in-the-Box, The Scythe, Uncle Einar, The Wind, The Man Upstairs, There Was an Old Woman, The Cistern, Homecoming, and The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone show less

This was a very good choice to read this month!
I had picked it up to read "Small Assassin" & "The Emissary", both of which were enjoyable reads, but I got so much more! "The Next in Line" may quite possibly be my new favorite short story! It is so good, full of nervous energy, vivid descriptions, mummies, and spooky goings on, all set in Mexico, around Dia de los Muertos! Yikes!
There are a few stinkers in here, but for the most part, I was quite entertained - vampires, the grim reaper, and an aunt who doesn't want to give up her body! And what was in that jar? I shudder to think of it...

A mixed bag, as short story collections often are, but few of these stories approach Bradbury at his peak. I’d recommend Dandelion Wine or Something Wicked This Way Comes if you’re not already familiar with Bradbury.

Some of my favorites were:

‪The Lake‬
‪The Emissary‬
‪The Jar‬
‪There Was An Old Woman‬
‪The Man Upstairs‬
‪Skeleton‬

Of these, “The Lake” and “The Emissary” were primo Bradbury. Both show the melancholic nostalgia of looking back at youth, and “The Emissary” is genuinely creepy (if not completely original). Bradbury excels at portraying the wonder (that can tilt into terror) of young boys.

There were also some absolute stinkers that I wish I’d skipped:

‪The Next In show more Line‬
‪Jack-in-the-Box‬
‪Touched with Fire‬

The rest were fair to middling. show less

To say that I loved this book is an understatement. Here is a book I will covet and revisit each Autumn. I will need to cleanse my brain of all toxic books and reward myself. I am looking forward to revisiting this spooky collection every end of summer like a tradition.

Bradbury dropped so many gems here it is incredible. Even something so simple is written so eloquent and profound, like he writes with the feather of an angel while the devil looks over his shoulder. He dug deep into the morbid terrains with these stories, his horror downright shocked me, as I still see this adorable old man penning Dandelion Wine. This is nothing of the sort!

See below for example of deeply vivid imagery that resonated with my psych:
“In the hall, on show more her way downstairs, Mother dropped a champagne bottle. Edwin heard and was cold, for the thought that jumped through his head was, That’s how mother’d sound. If she fell, if she broke, you’d find a million fragments in the morning. Bright crystal and clear wine on the parquet flooring, that’s all you’d see at dawn."

and another : for good measure!

“He raged for hours. And the skeleton, ever the frail and solemn philosopher, hung quietly inside, saying not a word, suspended like a delicate insect within a chrysalis, waiting and waiting.”

How about one paragraph that can draw you into another dimension completely? See below!

“Four children were born, three boys and a girl, who, for their energy, seemed to have wings. They popped up like toadstools in a few years, and on hot summer days asked their father to sit under the apple tree and fan them with his cooling wings and tell them wild starlit tales of island clouds and ocean skies and textures of mist and wind and how a star tastes melting in your mouth, and how to drink cold mountain air, and how it feels to be a pebble dropped from Mt. Everest, turning to a green bloom, flowering your wings just before you strike bottom!”

The imagery that short paragraph stirs up inside my mind is… well it has left me speechless! Ray Bradbury was a magician, a wizard of words. He held secret dimensions in his brain, galaxies far beyond our reach.
I miss him, and I always will. No one holds a light to his words. He will always be, by far, my favorite author! No one comes close to ever replacing him.
Farewell for now. show less

I can understand why some readers love these stories. I can see how some readers would rate this book so highly. I am not saying those folks are wrong, but Bradbury just does not resonate with me. His stories chafe and bore me. I get restless and disinterested in reading his work. I am vaguely glad I read this collection, though. These are stories that, if pressed, I will think of like Friends titles, i.e. The One with the Sugar Skulls, The One with the Dog, The One with the Skeleton, etc.

Writers who want to write in the horror/speculative fiction genre need to read through these stories carefully and decide what works and what does not. The general reader may or may not like this collection, I have no idea, since my opinion on this show more one seems vastly divergent. show less