Summer Morning, Summer Night

Ray Bradbury’s new, for the most part, small book of short stories is perhaps all too reminiscent of Dandelion Wine and other early favorites. Many are focussed on death (The Graveyard, I Got Something you Ain’t Got)  The language is at times too self-consciously poetic.  Some are not so macabre and lead to a good resolution, like the relationship between a teacher and student in These Things Happen.  Most grisly is the narrative by a serial killer in At Midnight in the Month of June.  On the whole, the abnormal and the dark side are Bradbury’s domain.