A review by shawntowner
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

5.0

First of all, Bradbury is a much better writer than I remember him being. His action writing lacks clarity at times, but the major passages in the novel (Beatty explaining the history of the Fireman and needling Montag with literary allusions, Montag yelling at his wife and her friends, Granger explaining the phoenix and the importance of remembering) are all amazingly well-written. Second, I think F451 is more relevant now than it has ever been before. The world of the novel is strikingly similar to today: constant war, obsession with television (including mindless game shows), a willful cultural and historical illiteracy, even the part where the man on the TV says Mildred's name is similar to the recent Old Spice promotion where Old Spice Man would say Hello, {insert Twitter Name} instead of Hello, Ladies. It's scary how accurate Bradbury is in his vision of the near future, excepting of course for the lack of giant robot spider-dogs in today's society.