The October Country: Stories

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She opened her purse slowly and took out a small roll of bills and started counting. Thirty-five, forty dollars. There. I’m going to phone Billie Fine and have him send out one of those tall-type mirrors to Mr. Bigelow at the Ganghes Arms. Yes, I am! How does a crowd gather so fast after an accident? Where do they all come from? And why do certain faces reappear in every gathering crowd? Do they sense the results, or cause them? Edwin is a strange child in a strange house with a strange mother. The large house is his world — his mother will not permit him to venture out beyond, where the great beasts killed Edwin’s father before he was born. Edwin knows only the house, knows only mother and teacher, and he never sees them together. Then one day, it all changed, terrifyingly and wondrous. I had been writing about living. Now I wanted to live. Do things instead of tell about things. [...] We've lived every way there is to live, with our eyes and noses and mouths, with our ears and hands. TL;DR: My favorite stories are "Skeleton", "The Small Assassin" and "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone".

The Lake" - The first overtly supernatural tale in this book, a sentimental and sad little ghost story. Brew a witch’s mug of warm drink, breathe in the leafy chill, wrap up in an old woolen scarf and enjoy. This oppressively hot tale of summer heat, and frayed, homicidal nerves is excellent, but feels out of season in this October collection.The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone ends the book not with another scare but with an affirmation of life, an invitation to get our noses out of books and run around in the sun. Dudley Moore was a very promising young writer who decided decades ago to renounce his literary career and fade into oblivion. In the present time, he invites a reporter to tell him all about that past decision and the reason for his seclusion: The theme of this collection, as the title suggests, is autumn. As Neil Gaiman once said, Bradbury is to experienced in October and after reading three of his books as well as this short story collection, I quite agree. He seems to have loved this time of year as much as I do, as is evidenced by this "introduction" to The October Country:

En otros, un hombre compra en una feria una jarra que contiene una horrorosa criatura que de algún modo hechiza a cada uno que la ve. El cuento se llama precisamente "La jarra". Otro gran cuento del libro se llama "La guadaña", en el que un hombre y su familia arriban a una cabaña escapando del hambre. Allí encuentran que un viejo ha muerto y les ha cedido todas su posesiones y una portentosa guadaña con una inscripción que dice 'Quien me maneja, ¡Maneja el mundo!' Podrán darse cuenta hacia dónde se orienta la narración... Skeleton - oh my ears and whiskers – this story was totally vomit inducing and also blew my head off, all about a guy who becomes convinced his skeleton is out to get him – greatThink how wonderful for him, Ralph, having one in his own room any time he wants it. Can I use your phone? Two colorless sisters living alone together. One of the sisters dreams passionately morose dreams of dead romance beneath the city. When the dream becomes more real than the reality… Aimee, he said carelessly, we shouldn’t quarrel. You say tomorrow Billie’s sending that mirror to Mr. Big’s? Probably not Bradbury's best collection but Bradbury is always well worth reading. The best Ray Bradbury anthology is - IMO - The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles is great but it is more of a fix-up novel. The first story in the collection that is about the FAMILY. I loved reading about Cecy, a girl who spends her days in bed, but has great powers of mind. I enjoyed all the stories about the family, but it was only in the last one that I figured out who they really were.