Farewell Summer!

3 hrs. 10 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Ray Bradbury

Narrator Nadezhda Vinokurova

Description

In a sense, “Farewell Summer” is a novel about how much you can learn from old people if you have the courage to ask them a few questions—and then, without interrupting, listen to what they will say. The questions Doug asks and the answers Mr. Quatermain gives serve as the organizing core of the separate chapters and in the book’s resolution.
Here’s what Ray Bradbury wrote about “Farewell Summer”:
“Here’s what I’m getting at: the course of events isn’t determined by me. Instead of controlling my characters, I let them live their own lives and express their opinions without interference. And I—only listen and write down.
In essence, ‘Farewell Summer’ is a continuation of the novel ‘Dandelion Wine,’ which was published half a century ago. Back then I brought the manuscript to a publishing house and heard: ‘Well, no! That volume won’t do. Let’s release the first ninety thousand words as a separate edition, and what remains, we’ll set aside for better times—let it mature for publication.’ The rather raw version of the complete text originally was called by me ‘Memorable Blue Hills.’ The initial title of the part that later turned into ‘Dandelion Wine’ was ‘Summer Morning, Summer Evening.’ But for this book, which publishers rejected, the title appeared immediately: ‘Farewell Summer.’”