book review: fahrenheit 451, ray bradbury
i see why this is required reading in some schools and banned in others. i also see why i found it terribly uninteresting when it was mandated yet completely absorbing years later, when i chose to pick it up.
bradbury packs 190 pages with weird grammar and a spasmodic plot. he breaks nearly every rule i've learned about writing, but the story is only possible because of this.
fahrenheit 451 follows guy montag. literally named guy (mostly referred to as montag), our mc is... you. his wife is also you. his boss is probably you too. the power of this book lies in its applicability. the characters have just enough depth to be interesting but never enough to prevent you from layering someone else on top of them. the plot can be found in any newspaper of any time. the location is outside your house 50 years ago or 50 years from now. the entire story is timeless because it is then, now, and later.
we follow montag as he wakes up. not literally. after years of burning books as his full time job, he realizes it may not be right. and then we watch him stop burn his life instead. i won't spoil anything here and i'm getting too lazy to continue so i'll wrap it up for today:
the ending is perfectly unassuming. everything blows up and then, life continues.
5 stars.