The October Country: Stories

Classic early Bradbury tales, mostly in the Weird Tales mode, but with a few outliers.

One of the outliers, a long story (for Bradbury) called "The Next in Line" is a remarkable meditation on fear within the confines of a not-so-happy couple on a trip to Mexico. The story reveals Bradbury's own insecurities, tapping into a traumatic 1947 auto trip he made to Mexico with an old (and soon to be former) friend, Grant Beach. It's creepy and illuminating.

I also adore "The Scythe," the strange tale of a family on the skids that happens upon a seeming miracle in the form of an abandoned wheat farm. But the cost to occupying the farm is high indeed.

"The Crowd" has the feel of a truly frightening Twilight Zone episode, again trading in some of the author's own fears. Who are these people who show up to gawk at auto accidents in 1940s Los Angeles....?

A horror classic far ahead of its time, Bradbury's sweetly nostalgic sensibilities about childhood go out the window in this story of a mother's growing suspicions about her infant child in "The Small Assassin."

There are also two stories about "The Family," the author's quirky clan of supernaturals, "Uncle Einar" and "Homecoming," lighter in tone and featuring the melancholy nostalgia that characterized some of Bradbury's finest work.

There isn't a bad story in this collection, though a few more "mainstream" stories might not thrill fans as much. If you like this, it's worth checking out "Dark Carnival," the author's first collection, from which this one was gleaned by Ballantine in 1953. The first collection is rougher and more pulpy, featuring many more dark tales.

Ray Bradbury was unquestionably one of the most accomplished writers of the 20th Century, a master of plot, pacing, and perfect phrasing. "The October Country" can be enjoyed as superlative fantasy, offering nineteen of the master's best stories, but with careful reading his work can also make you a better writer, should that be your goal. I can't recommend this book highly enough on either basis.

I loved this book so much! It came in perfect condition. I love the size, overall design, and paper choice of the book. And the book itself is a masterpiece. Bradbury is an amazing author. I'm always taken aback by how brilliant his stories are. I also feel like reading Bradbury has taught me how to truly read, and appreciate the act of reading itself.

Had to have this for my Kindle collection! A genuine classic! The October Country is a collection of short stories (for those who aren't looking to read an entire novel) about childhood, Autumn, Halloween, mystery, fantasy, and horror. Ray Bradbury is a marvelously gifted storyteller. It's so easy to lose yourself in his settings and characters. I own the entire (well worn) Bradbury collection in my home library, and never tire of reading anything in it. The magic never fades. I'm a Kindle newbie (my best friend is on her third, and inspired me to buy one of my own), so I started with the Kindle Paperwhite E-reader. I've found it easy to carry and wonderfully portable. The technology makes it easy to read under any lighting conditions. The font adjustment feature assures that you don't have to hope that your favorite read has been issued in large print. The number and variety of downloadable reading materials is awesome, and the cost is minimal. Nothing like carrying an entire library in my purse! Kindle is a remarkably versatile reader and holds a charge for weeks at a time. The short version: Love it!

Ray Bradbury's The October Country is often held up as the closest Bradbury ever came to doing a horror anthology, and while not every story here is a dark one, there's no shortage of nightmares here. There's "Skeleton," in which a man becomes horrifying aware of the bones within his body and becomes convinced that they're trying to take over his life; there's the surprisingly nasty ending of "The Man Upstairs," in which a young boy becomes convinced that the lodger living upstairs in a vampire; and there's "The Small Assassin," about a possibly murderous infant, and a story that has one of the nastiest last lines in memory. In other words, there's plenty of darkness here, and while Bradbury isn't going to be mistaken for the full-fledged horror of a King or a Barker, there's some wonderfully dark, Gothic material here.

But more than that, there's the imagination and heart that Bradbury was so known for, and no story better unifies those ideas than the wonderful "Homecoming." A favorite of Neil Gaiman's (and the influence on Gaiman's world is evident), "Homecoming" tells the story of a family of monsters - vampires, ghosts, and more - coming together for a family reunion, all told from the perspective of the one "normal" child in the family. It's sweet, heartbreaking, and ends on an optimistic and heartfelt note that made me smile. Or take "The Emissary," about a young boy, confined to his room because of sickness, who experiences the world entirely through his roaming dog and the visitors he brings home - a story that opens with wonder and heart, slowly turns to heartbreak, and then becomes terrifying. And that's not all - once you add to the collection some stories that show off Bradbury's rich sense of humor - the elderly woman who refuses to die in "There Was an Old Woman," or the ridiculous satire of trend followers that is "The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse" - and you have a wonderful collection that reminds you what made Bradbury so special.

I was missing some of the Bradbury stories I read as a child and picked this up, not remembering if it held any of my favorites. All of the stories were new to me, and completely delightful--in each, Bradbury chooses an imaginative theme and iterates on it with beautiful, visceral language. The stories are classic weird fiction/dark fantasy, and reminded me also of the Hitchcock curated stories I read as a kid. Of these 18 stories, many of my favorites were in the second half of the book.

The Dwarf--3 stars--a woman tries to help a little person being bullied by her coworker at the pier carnival, with disastrous results.

The Next in Line--4 stars--husband and wife on a vacation in Mexico visit the mummies in the local cemetery: people whose families can't afford to pay the rent on their graves. After seeing them lined up in the catacomb a rift grows between the husband and wife, and slowly undoes them. Classic descent-into-madness story.

The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse--3 stars--a short, comedic satire about one conventional man's obsession with the young intelligentsia.

Skeleton--5 stars--A man at war with his own skeleton. The ending is priceless, and though the premise is absurd, I found myself having had the same strange thoughts at one time or another in my own life.

The Jar--4 stars--A farmer buys a freakish specimen suspended in a jar to impress his neighbors at home, who gather nightly to speculate on what it might be. I loved that the different guesses of the townsfolk were stand-ins for our different ways of seeing the world. Also, Bradbury is such a master of descriptive prose.

The Lake--4 stars--Childhood friends separated, but not forever, by death. Poignant and beautiful.

The Emissary--5 stars--One of my favorite stories. The dog of a bedridden boy roams the outside world and brings back the smells of everything on his fur. Sometimes too, the dog brings the boy companions, both welcome and strange.

Touched with Fire--3 stars--Short story about two old men who try to help a cantankerous woman undesirous of interference. Funny and entertaining.

The Small Assassin--2 stars--I'm never a huge fan of stories about mothers and fathers whose babies are out to get them.

The Crowd--5 stars--Lovely, intriguing, creepy premise about the people who crowd around car accidents.

Jack-in-the-Box--4 stars--A recluse mother and her boy, who doesn't know that he's a recluse. She's raised him to think that the house is the universe, the different stories and rooms are countries and lands, and that out in the trees and beyond them, there are beasts who would rend the boy to pieces. More beautiful descriptions, though modern readers will probably feel that this story has been done many times.

The Scythe--3 stars--Bradbury's take on the Grim Reaper.

Uncle Einar--4 stars--A man with wings has a mid-life crisis.

The Wind--3 stars--A man is persecuted by the wind. (In this story as in all of Bradbury's stories, the speculative element is used to enhance the humanity of the characters--this story is actually about friendship, and the guilt of not being there for your old friend when he needs you most)

The Man Upstairs--4 stars--Delicious sinister story about a boy and the new mysterious boarder in his grandmother's house.

There Was An Old Woman--5 stars--An old woman who sees the man in black coming for her, and refuses to die. Aunt Tildy is a wonderfully drawn, hilarious character.

The Cistern--4 stars--A short but beautiful love story about two dead people in the sewer.

Homecoming--5 stars--This is the kind of story I remember loving Bradbury for. A family of vampires, (sort of, they drink blood but have other fantastic talents as well), has a reunion. Unfortunately for Timothy, the only human member of his family, the reunion brings to life all of his embarrassment and longing. Again, the story is about what it's like to be 14-years-old, couched in the great creativity of Bradbury's fantastic descriptions and characters.

The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone--4 stars--Not really speculative, but a meditation on literary success and failure. The characters reminded me of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and as always the imagery was vivid and beautiful.

Good stories - poor Kindle implementation. Where is the table of contents? Due to no navigation step to the table of contents you're not able to get to a specific chapter without proceeding page by page to where you want to go. Amazon can do better. That being said I first read a paperback version of this book back in the early 70's - the stories are as entertaining now as they were then. I give it 3 stars only because Amazon dropped the ball by omitting the table of contents function. The stories themselves merit a 5.