BOOK REVIEW: Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

This is a book review for Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I read this for both my Banned Book Challenge and my TBR Pile Challenge.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

First of all, can I just point out the irony of a book about burning books being on the Banned Books list? Okay now that I have pointed that out, I want to say that I really, really wanted to enjoy this book. It seemed perfect: a dystopian novel where firefighters burn books instead of actually putting fires out. But I was not a fan of Ray Bradbury's writing. He just kind of hit me in the head over and over with his flowery language and his metaphors. And the metaphors he used weren't even about anything major. He would go on and on for a full page about how the street looked in the rain. Maybe it was because of all the metaphors, but when his wife tried to commit suicide, it actually took me about two pages to realize what happened. Meanwhile, I felt no connection to the character and some of his actions made no sense. When Montag meets Clarisse, he acts perturbed that firefighters used to put fires out and acted as if burning books was his lifelong calling and his dream come true. The synopsis indicates that it isn't until this meeting that he starts questioning his job and starts hiding books. This isn't really accurate. It turns out that he had been hiding books for a while. The only really exciting part of the book was the end. Just in case there are people who haven't read it, I won't give away any spoilers. I will say though that the end had a lot of action. It was very suspenseful, wondering if Montag would be caught with the books or what would happen. 

Buy/Borrow/Skip: I know it's a classic, but honestly I would recommend skipping it.