Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

I was fascinated by how different this was from Fahrenheit 451. Two completely different genres, and masterful execution in both categories.

This famous quote from Shakespeare took on new meaning after I finished this novel, which focuses heavily on time:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

There are tense and scary moments in this book and a parent should use judgement in allowing a child to read it, but I felt that it was not satanic or eery beyond reason - the author has a point to make about joy and sorrow, and a point to make about the seasons of our lives, and he makes these points exquisitely using the play of good and evil and the one caught between. It is a powerful story with a powerful message. I recommend this book especially to male tweens and fifty-somethings, and anyone who has either of those categories of people in their lives; but everyone will come away from this novel reminded of some valuable truths.

In one scene a father is looking out a second-floor window and sees his son and another boy:

"Look! he thought. Will runs because running is its own excuse. Jim runs because somthing's up ahead of him.
"Yet, strangely, they do run together."

Another contrast is drawn between the boys a few pages later,

"The trouble with Jim was he looked at the world and could not look away. And when you never look away all your life, by the time you are thirteen you have done twenty years taking in the laundry of the world.
"Will Halloway, it was in him young to always look just beyond, over or to one side. So at thirteen he had saved up only six years of staring."

This innocence vs. experience plays out time and time again throughout the book and has a huge influence on the paths the boys take. It's also interesting to note that Jim lives with his single mother, while Will has a mother and a father at home. I think Will is partly innocent because of his parents, and that his innocence and parental protection save him from wanting the same freedom Jim wants, and so he ends up in the better situation most of the time. Now, I may be biased because I identified more with Will, but that's how I felt.

Near the end of the novel Will and his father are looking for Jim -

"And Jim? Well, where was Jim? This way one day, that way the next, and . . . tonight? Whose side would he wind up on? Ours! Old friend Jim! Ours, of course! But Will trembled. Did friends last forever, then? For eternity, could they be counted to a warm, round and handsome sum?"

The 'bad guy' in this book is the Illustrated Man, who is covered with tattoos, and at once represents one person and a mass of monsters moving and breathing with one intent. When he (spoiler alert?) is defeated, it states

"[He], and his stricken and bruised conclave of monsters, his felt but half-seen crowd, fell to earth.
"There should have been a roar like a mountain slid to ruin.
"But there was only a rustle, like a Japanese paper lantern dropped in the dust."

Once the evil is wiped out, Will asks

"Dad, will they ever come back?"
"No. And yes." Dad tucked away his harmonica. "No, not them. But yes, other people like them. Not in a carnival. God knows what shape they'll come in next. But sunrise, noon, or at the latest, sunset tomorrow they'll show. They're on the road."
"Oh, no," said Will.
"Oh, yes," said Dad. "We got to watch ou the rest of our lives. The fight's just begun."
...
"What will they look like? How will we know them?"
"Why," said Dad quietly, "maybe they're already here."
Both boys looked around swiftly.
But there was only the meadow, the machine, and themselves.
Will looked at Jin, at his father, and then down at his own body and hands. He glanced up at Dad.
Dad nodded, once, gravely. . .

The main take-aways are that we can overcome evil (be it internal or external) and that it's okay to take time growing up, and then it's okay to be old. Life has a pattern and we follow it for a reason.

It's very subtle, but I think the book ends just a few minutes after the boys reach the long-awaited age of 14.