Customer Reviews

Green Shadows-White Whale

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ray Bradbury was a science fiction icon, but there's a reason he didn't write "The Playboy of the Western World" or "Finnegan's Wake." The dialogue is all you get from this book. The rest of the book is a thin vehicle to get you from one conversation to the next. There are few descriptions and few insights. The dialogue itself is very humorous at parts, and in others it's obvious that this is Bradbury writing how the conversations should have gone, not how they really went. I've thoroughly enjoyed other works by Bradbury, but this wasn't one of them.

Green Shadows, White Whale is a tale about Ray Bradbury's travels in Ireland while helping John Huston write the screenplay for Moby Dick. The writing is absolutely wonderful. I have read many books in my life but I have rarely read one so beautifully written and well composed. There were paragraphs and passages that I read over two and three times simply because they were so tasty. The story is broken up into chapters which comprise little subplots of their own. This makes for easy reading because you can read a chapter or two at a time and still enjoy the entire book. Read this book.

for the life of me i cannot understand why this book is out of print. i found it by chance in a used bookstore, and it was the greatest discovery of my life. this is a fantastic tale, about so much more than bradbury's experiences writing the screenplay for moby dick. it expresses in its eloquent and beautiful language a deeply moving, realistic optimism and love for life. it makes you want to go out and sing and dance and shout from mountaintops and do all those other things they do in songs. and above all it makes you want to share it with others.

Just some guys having fun, making a movie, hitting the pubs. A different side of Bradbury. Nothing literary or profound.

Bradbury fans will be disappointed. He reveals his anger here; an anger that he keeps to himself in his fiction. Skip this one and you'll never know the difference. Instead, read Leviathan '99 or _any_ of his story collections. All are fabulous.

It happens that Ray Bradbury spent a few months in Ireland while he was writing the script for a Moby Dick movie and he decided to write a book about his experience in the land of St. Patrick. The problem is that nothing worth of a whole book happened there. Just an eternal rain, some anecdotes with locals and many critics to the Irish.

Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay for John Huston's Moby Dick. It is a hysterical account of his exploits in Ireland where he wrote the piece. It is also a work of fiction because he combined some of his previous short story writings about Ireland into the book. Bradubury masterly weaves both fact and fiction into a enjoyable tour-de-force. If you are an avid Bradbury fan, you will remember some of his earlier work and recognize the stories. If not, then I envy you because you will not be able to distinguish fact from fiction. Bradbury does both a wonderfull job of catching Irelands essence and terrible poverty of which he covers lightly. He also hints at the terrible genious of John Huston without going into the gory details. This book is a very fast read and is wonderfull. It is certainly deserving of the national book award it recieved.

Ray Bradbury has done it again. Green Shadows, White Wales is the! best book i've read this year, or two years for that matter. From Finegan's pub and it's guild of drink lovers to a crazy fox-hunting director the book is neverending humor and good sprit. The book isn't that hard to read at all (maybe highschool level) good humor, interesting plot, historicaly teaching and a wonderful exploration of Ireland's funny side. Odd'ly enough though, the main character does resemble Ray Bradbury slightly, but I think Bradbury uses his own life to create fantastic tales and stories. A little bit of profanity but not much that would offend anyone (in other words, nothing on and on or harsh). I would definately recomend this book to teachers (of high school) and anyone who wants a good laugh and intriguing read.

This book covers some of the experiences that the author had in Ireland during the mid-'50's, after having been hired by John Huston to write the screenplay for the film of "Moby Dick". Mr. Bradbury tells two stories, one about Irish acquaintances (most met while pub crawling), and another about Mr. Huston. This gives the book a disjointed quality, since only geography connects the two stories. One wishes for more Huston anecdotes, which are more interesting than those involving the denizens of various pubs. The insights that are provided into John Huston's behavior are fascinating, and cause one to admire the strength of character shown by Mr. Bradbury as a young man.

This novel ficitionalizes Bradbury's experiences in writing the screenplay for John Huston's film of "Moby Dick." The book provides some of the background and re-tells several of Bradbury's Irish stories. The novel's high point is Bradbury's re-telling of his short story The Banshee. Put in its context of being written as an assault on Huston, the tale becomes even more chilling. This book may not be for everyone, but for people interested in Bradbury or Huston, it's a must-read.