Series: N/A
Published: 1953
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Format: Paperback
Pages: 227
Rating: ★★★★★
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.
This is a classic dystopian novel, and because it was written in the 1950s it is relevant today, and a lot of the issues that are raised in the story are ones we are going through in this day and age; consequently, this creates a scary atmosphere from the offset, as Bradbury in a way has predicted what was going to happen in the future. It paints a harsh but realistic reality on what’s happening as well as what could happen if we don’t change and the fact that it is so relevant makes it really creepy to read and relate.
The writing is absolutely stunning, the fluidity of the prose was almost poetic in its description, and flowed extremely well off the tongue upon reading aloud, which I admit is a guilty pleasure of mine. I don’t normally take too much notice of description if there’s a lot of it, and normally I don’t like a lot of it either, but this book is so full of wonderful metaphors that were so beautifully put together that I couldn’t help but take notice. The descriptions definitely didn’t detract from the story, and if anything, they enforced you to imagine the world in a clearer light.
In this story, books were forbidden because they gave people freedom of speech, imagination and something to think about – the government wanted anything but that; they wanted people to just live and not think about things that mean anything. The world was rounded up in Montag’s wife Mildred, she was epitome of ignorance – she created a bubble around herself and blocked herself away from the world by using different contraptions that had been invented to do just this. Instead of creating a full cast of characters in this manner, Bradbury created one, and this I believe was enough to create the idea that everyone else was the same in this almost robotic state.
I can proudly say that this book, Fahrenheit 451, is the first non YA book that I have absolutely loved. Ever. It was so powerful and relevant that it just gave me shivers reading it. It is one of those books that will stay with you forever and makes you think about the world around you and everything that is going on. Amazing.
Oh! Cakey Creativity 