#20: Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 [JRI: 1953]

[kareila]

I read The Martian Chronicles something like 25 years ago but didn't care for it, and never returned to Bradbury until now. He seems to have a tendency to write passive characters and active environments, an inversion which I find confusing and off-putting. When the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451 does take action, his actions seem to happen without conscious intention: the hands move of their own accord, the mouth forms its own words, etc.

Despite this narrative tic, I did find the story to be compelling. From the moment in the beginning when Montag meets Clarisse, there's a tension that results from Montag's increasing dissatisfaction with the society in which he lives, that keeps building gradually until it explodes.