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A review by louiza_read2live
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
4.0
What an ingenious idea! We begin with the narrator telling us in the prologue the story of how he met the illustrated man. It begins as a story of magical realism I might say that takes an unexpected turn of high sci-fi. The prologue with the story of the illustrated man serves as a frame story for the individual short stories that follow, and eventually on the epilogue we come full circle back to the story of the narrator and the illustrated man.
Ray Brabury has created in each story a world where space travelling, rockets, alien invansion, Martians, etc. are part of every day life. In most stories, earth has been deemed uninhabitable and people are living in Mars or looking for place to live in space. In other stories (or rather in all stories) we see the terrifying and catastrophic effects of advanced, futuristic technology not only on earth and individual humans, but also on human relationships: even on the most familial relationships. And Bradbury doesn't stop there; he also touches themes on religion, parenting, faith and hope versus giving up, and more... I'm sure a better examination of the text by someone familiar and well versed on Bradbury's work, the genre of sci-fi, and literature in general might find more themes being explored through this small, truly bizzare, but clever work.
I don't want to say anything on the character of the illustrated man because I didn't know anything prior to reading it, and I believe it is better to not read about him before. The unexpected turn the story will take is worth the wait to find out about him through the reading rather than through external sources.
I had absolutely loved Bradbury's Farenheit 451, but I was wary of reading anything else by him as I don't read much sci-fi. A friend recommended me this, and I'm so glad I gave it a try. It was worth it.
A word of caution to not make the same mistake I made: If you are buying a physical copy or reading The Illustrated Man on Kindle make sure that you buy to read a copy with the full epilogue. I didn't realize when I bought my copy that the small paperback from Simon and Schuster publishing does not include the whole epilogue, and I had to read the missing part on a different edition (the edition you see in the image here is the complete one). It makes a huge difference!! Without the full epilogue, it is a whole other book. The epilogue is a few pages, not just one page with a couple small paragraphs, and the epilogue makes the book what it is in the first place. My old copy (new from Barnes & Nobles) doesn't mention anywhere that is missing almost all the epilogue, so check the back of the book to make sure the epilogue is compete.
Ray Brabury has created in each story a world where space travelling, rockets, alien invansion, Martians, etc. are part of every day life. In most stories, earth has been deemed uninhabitable and people are living in Mars or looking for place to live in space. In other stories (or rather in all stories) we see the terrifying and catastrophic effects of advanced, futuristic technology not only on earth and individual humans, but also on human relationships: even on the most familial relationships. And Bradbury doesn't stop there; he also touches themes on religion, parenting, faith and hope versus giving up, and more... I'm sure a better examination of the text by someone familiar and well versed on Bradbury's work, the genre of sci-fi, and literature in general might find more themes being explored through this small, truly bizzare, but clever work.
I don't want to say anything on the character of the illustrated man because I didn't know anything prior to reading it, and I believe it is better to not read about him before. The unexpected turn the story will take is worth the wait to find out about him through the reading rather than through external sources.
I had absolutely loved Bradbury's Farenheit 451, but I was wary of reading anything else by him as I don't read much sci-fi. A friend recommended me this, and I'm so glad I gave it a try. It was worth it.
A word of caution to not make the same mistake I made: If you are buying a physical copy or reading The Illustrated Man on Kindle make sure that you buy to read a copy with the full epilogue. I didn't realize when I bought my copy that the small paperback from Simon and Schuster publishing does not include the whole epilogue, and I had to read the missing part on a different edition (the edition you see in the image here is the complete one). It makes a huge difference!! Without the full epilogue, it is a whole other book. The epilogue is a few pages, not just one page with a couple small paragraphs, and the epilogue makes the book what it is in the first place. My old copy (new from Barnes & Nobles) doesn't mention anywhere that is missing almost all the epilogue, so check the back of the book to make sure the epilogue is compete.