Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury comes recommended to me by a friend. I enjoy sci-fi and horror, but surprisingly have never read any Bradbury! That said, I did not know quite what to expect in terms of prose and style.
SWTWC follows 13 year olds Will and Jim as they uncover the dark mystery of an unsettling carnival newly arrived in town. The fact that the carnival arrives in autumn (the carnival people are later referred to as the autumn people) immediately tips the boys off that something is not right. That night, they witness something very supernatural about the carousel which in turn leads to more disturbing events such as a grown woman being shrunk down to a child, a man seemingly being resurrected from the dead with electrocution, and a witch in a type of hot air balloon seeking to attack their homes (yes, you read that right.) These mysterious and unsettling events come to a head when Mr. Dark, the apparent leader of the dark carnival, becomes fixated on Will and Jim because he knows they, with the help of Will’s father Charles, have uncovered the carnival’s evil secrets. As an aside, the scenes of the three in the library researching the carnival’s origins really reminded me of IT, and I wonder if King was at all inspired by this story?
A huge component of the novel relies on Charles, and his relationship with his son. Charles views himself as an older father (54,) and therefore ineffective or out of touch. He finds solace long into the nights in the local library in which he is employed as the janitor. Charles is an introspective and wise character, quite insular and perhaps existing at arm’s length from his own son until the boys draw Charles into the mystery of the carnival. Through the misfortune and turmoil the carnival has brought, Charles seems to “find” himself as both a father as well as someone still youthful at heart and still able to contribute to the world–and his son’s life–in a meaningful way.
Although the novel is largely supernatural horror and science fiction, there are many themes within it concerning aging, youth, brotherhood, and fathers and sons. While I appreciated the original (at the time) concept, many times I found myself struggling to follow what was really happening in the narrative. Much of the plot gets buried and hidden beneath the highly stylized prose. Sometime it is beautifully and uniquely written, but more often than not I found it distracting and hard to follow.
