Driving Blind

Following his Quicker than the Eye (Avon, 1996), Bradbury, author of such sf classics as Fahrenheit 451 (1953), returns in top form with another new collection of 21 short stories, only four of which were previously published. In "Fee Fie Foe Fum," Grandma fears her grandson-in-law's intentions for her with his new garbage disposal unit. In "Someone in the Rain," a man's adult experiences at a summer resort don't live up to his childhood memories. Bradbury explores a tarnished circus, one of his favorite themes, in "That Old Dog Lying in the Dust." He paints vivid word pictures of people and small towns in a kind of skewed Norman Rockwell way that moves beyond sf categorization. A must for all fiction collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Arriving too late for a full review, grandmaster Bradbury's latest collection (Quicker Than the Eye, 1996, etc.) consists of 17 new tales and 4 reprints, 197497. Among the themes: gambling, WW II, a dead man who doesn't realize he's dead, sexual awakening and ghost stories, a mysterious theft, a sinister butcher and an equally sinister garbage disposal unit, a man with no face who's an expert car salesman (the title piece), circuses, moths, twins, September, a street-cleaning machine, a persecuted smart kid, Irish blarney, religion, and the death of Death. Typically diverse, veering between sentiment and nostalgia, and set forth in the curiously mannered, modern-antique style that has become Bradbury's trademark. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.