Book of the Month (January): The Martian Chronicles

The book of the month for January was supposed to be "Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury. It would have most likely been the last book I would have finished before the end of the month.

I couldn't manage to finish the novel, however. I couldn't get into the story, so I decided I would talk about "The Martian Chronicles" instead; since, in my opinion, it's a better book.

Mrs. Mansolino, my 7th grade English teacher taught the Martian Chronicles every year. Some of the parents fought against her, saying it was too mature for 7th graders. She responded to them by saying, "That's what I'm here for."

I have no idea how the other kids felt about the book, but I will never forget the first time reading the book, or the second, which was about a year ago. It was one of my first books, not intentionally written for teens that I had ever really read. I read plenty growing up, more than all of my friends, and I could read at a high level, but I was still reading fiction for a more innocent audience.

The Martian Chronicles takes the whimsy of sci-fi and melts it together with a myriad of literary references, and heaping dose of innocence shattering reality about how humans are destroying the Earth as well as themselves.

Here is a quote from one of the vignettes in the book titled "The Off Season." 

"Earth changed in the black sky. It caught fire. Part of it seemed to come apart in a million pieces, as if a gigantic jigsaw had exploded. It burned with an unholy dripping glare for a minute, three times normal size, then dwindled."

I remember reading Bradbury's somewhat post-apocalyptic about the need for people to move to Mars because they have destroyed Earth with war, and for the first time understanding what atrocities humans could be responsible for.

Earlier that year, I had read a memoir about a young girl growing up in China during the Red Revolution. Mrs. Mansolino, saw my book choice and said to me, "You're a deep girl, Jocelyn." I didn't know why she said that, and I didn't fully understand what was happening in that memoir, called "The Red Scarf Girl."

Atomic bombs, Hiroshima, Nagasoki, Japan, WWII, none of that was new to me. I knew my history pretty well, but that was in the past and away from me, but an atomic bomb destroying everything, that seemed to grab my attention a little more.


Bradbury managed to create a space-based parable to point out almost every horrible act mankind could commit against itself. Not only were they destroying earth, they were then taking over a home that belong to someone else, colonialism much?

Here is a novel that I feel can be widely appreciated for it's universal story and theme, can thrill, enchant, depress, and scare the living daylights out of anyone.