Shaun Corley | Staff Writer

1/25/02

After a lifetime of achievement and artistic success in every form of print medium available, one would think that Ray Bradbury would be content to rest on his laurels and quietly live out his life. Then again, this is Ray Bradbury we’re talking about here folks. We should know better.

Bradbury’s latest novel, From the Dust Returned, has actually been a work in progress for the past fifty years. He originally intended to draw together a smattering of inter-related short stories with illustrations by Charles Addams (who created The Addams Family). Yet, for various reasons, the project never saw the light of day. At the suggestion of his editor, Bradbury finally finished the project in 2000.

From the Dust Returned tells the story of the Eternal family, an odd collection of creatures, such as mummies, like A Thousand Times Great Grandmere; witches like Cecy; winged men like Uncle Einar and various other ghouls and goblins. In the middle of them all is young Timothy, who provides an outsider perspective on this family of outsiders.

Several of the stories in this book have appeared in previous Bradbury collections, such as “The Wandering Witch,” which originally appeared under the title “The April Witch” in Golden Apples of the Sun. Bradbury also composed framing sequences to connect the stories together.

A feeling of sadness permeates this book: the Family realizes that as humanity grows more and more advanced in their knowledge, their day is done. Much like he did in Something Wicked This Way Comes Bradbury has managed to capture perfectly the sadness that comes with the abandonment of childhood idealism and the disillusionment that comes with the realization that the real world is not the place you thought it to be. Yet, Bradbury challenges us to never let go of the child inside, and continue to view the world with wide eyes. My personal favorite of this collection is “The Wandering Witch"; if ever there was heaven in 16 pages, this is it.

I fear Bradbury may not be long for this world, and From the Dust Returned maybe his final work. It provides an excellent capstone to a distinguished career, and if it is his last work, a fitting swan song.