Recently Read: From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury

From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

SRP (Summer Reading Program) Why Bite: This highly imaginative novel is a lyrical portrait of an intriguing family with a rather simplistic plot.

Written over his lifetime in bits and pieces, Ray Bradbury wanted From the Dust Returned to be the Halloween equivalent to A Christmas Carol, a holiday tradition reread every year. While this was never achieved, the story is intriguing and clearly a labor of love. I just wish it was a little less laborious to read. The writing here is deeply philosophical in nature, almost lyrical, but overly flowery and poetic. Honestly, it tries a little too hard to be profound. Occasionally a passage would be so thick I’d have to reread it more carefully to try to comprehend whatever Bradbury was trying to convey to the reader. Still, the concept, characters and story lines are creative and interesting, reminding me of the work of Tim Burton. The fact that the cover art was created by Charles Addams, with whom Bradbury had an arrangement to illustrate the novel when finished, just adds to the overall feel of the novel. Sadly, Addams, creator of the iconic “Addams Family,” passed away before this agreement could be realized.

I found the plot concept for this novel fascinating. The never dying, supernatural creatures can only live as long as people believe in the unseen. Their very existence is threatened by atheism. Bradbury, as usual, excels in character development, providing a detailed portrait of each member of the family. Passages are strangely incredibly descriptive yet vague. I found myself rereading passages (again) to try to get a better mental picture. Bradbury waxes poetic quite often throughout the novel, which makes for some rather beautiful passages that ultimately say very little. The overall plot itself is weak, as the novel is really a series of vignettes about the various characters. However, the smaller storylines within the vignettes are complete and engrossing. This is because the novel was pieced together from short stories about the Elliott family, whose family name is never once mentioned in the novel itself, written over the span of many years. Yet the novel flows naturally as Bradbury masterfully weaves continuity throughout and the reader is left with no loose ends. The story doesn’t end in the traditional way, but it hardly matters as Bradbury wraps up the immediate storylines nicely. The story is as immortal as the Family and continues into infinity, as long as people continue to believe in the unbelievable. The stories of the House and the Homecoming end as Timothy’s role as historian and caretaker begins.

Bradbury included an Afterward that details the process of the creation of this novel. It is worth the read and gives insight into the inspiration for the stories.

I really wanted to give this novel four stars, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Bradbury’s imagination is really amazing. Many of the ideas in the book are concepts I have never thought of, and are unique in the world of the genre. The vagueness plays into this a little. The reader no doubt assumes that Mother and Father are vampires, but Bradbury never comes out and says it. Perhaps they are, or perhaps they are something else entirely. This allows for interaction with the reader’s imagination, a sign of excellent story telling. In Bradbury’s supernatural world, everything is possible and nothing is as it seems. As much as I wanted to love it, I felt disappointed that there wasn’t more action. Most of the vignettes are little more than “a day in the life,” with the exception of the portions that further the main simplistic plot. I felt like an opportunity was missed for the captivating concept of the fragility of immortality to be further developed. Bradbury creates a world, a landscape, and a cast of characters, but ultimately does very little with it.


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