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I don't quite remember which of Ray Bradbury's works I read first. I think it was FAHRENHEIT 451. My mother, rest her soul, unrelentingly indulged her weird 12-year-old son and for Christmas one year mail-ordered several books from the gone but not forgotten F & SF Book Company in New York City. The first book I pulled out of the carton was the aforementioned Bradbury; I think I read THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES after that, then THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, then SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, and all the rest of them. I caught up with his back catalogue and eagerly waited for more. It's a constant that hasn't changed over the past 40 years.
The world caught up with Bradbury; he received the well-deserved, if overdue, National Book Award for making a "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters;" he's had satellites and craters named in his honor; his work, at one point, was studied in high schools and universities. Then the world, in the words of Stephen King's Roland, "moved ahead." Bradbury, however, is still with us.
ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD is a collection of 15 short stories by Bradbury, 8 of which are previously uncollected, with the remainder being previously unpublished. The designation of "short" is not accidental; the longest story here, "The Dragon Danced At Midnight," is but 18 pages long. The published stories range from 1948 to but a few months ago. The range of time demonstrates and demarks a shift in Bradbury's storytelling focus away from large social issues and toward the more personal.
Much of Bradbury's earlier work utilized fantasy and science fiction as a metaphoric device for commentary on social issues such as civil rights and undue media influence. Some of it, such as FAHRENHEIT 451, has proved to be eerily and unerringly prophetical, and while some of his scientific prophecies missed the mark, the message contained within did not. Bradbury's later work occasionally still touched on such weighty issues --- witness "The Laurel and Hardy Alpha Centuri Farewell Tour," wherein humanity, having conquered space, encounters an inexplicable yearning for earth, which is sated by a tour of a long-dead and miraculously resurrected comedic duo. Most of ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD, however, deals with more personal issues, those of how we relate to one another, one-on-one. Of these, Bradbury frequently resorts to dialogue, almost entirely so. In so doing, he demonstrates, irrefutably, that in his ninth decade on this side of the veil he continues to be master of all that comes under his touch. While all of his stories, each in its own way, are standouts, there are two that are first among equals. Both, not by coincidence, deal with the basic relationships between man and woman, husband and wife.
"Tete-a-Tete" is a short tale of love, loss, and sharing. It is a simple story of the human condition, of that which we so often cannot understand when we encounter it but which is nonetheless so, of the elements that make up that which we call love. In "Well, What Do You Have To Say For Yourself?" Bradbury explores, on a very simple, very elemental level, the complexities of the male psyche in a way that has, to my knowledge, never been done. Go to any newsstand, the magazines aimed at women are about, for the most part, women. The magazines aimed at men are, to a great extent, about...women. Bradbury's story is about men, and about how --- if not necessarily why --- they behave badly on occasion, and of how the difference between the good ones and the bad ones is marked by the regret of the good ones. Not a list of excuses, not an apologia, "Well, What Do You Have To Say For Yourself" is as good an explanation for and of men as I have come across in quite some time. The fact that it is published in ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD for the first time says much about both the magazine market for short stories and the quality of this collection.
Bradbury, who has been delighting and inspiring readers and writers alike for over 60 years, continues to demonstrate in ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD why, of all of the voices of our time, his has been one of the most enduring. He remains, with this collection, an author whose work simply cannot, and must not, be omitted from any reading list.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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