Green Shadows, White Whale: A Novel of Ray Bradbury's Adventures Making Moby Dick with John Huston in Ireland (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The title of this lighthearted, beguiling autobiographical novel is a play on Peter Viertel's White Hunter, Black Heart , which, like this book, dealt with the legendary director John Huston. This is Bradbury's comic account of his trip to Ireland to write the screenplay for Huston's adaptation of Moby-Dick . The movie itself is merely a background constant that anchors this series of vivid, ear-tingling vignettes and anecdotes. Bradbury describes his awed dealings with the erratic, eccentric and impulsive director, and his delight upon being accepted among the regulars at an atmospheric pub called Heeber Finn's. It's a great place to hoist a wee drop and listen to stories told in the best Irish brogue. Finn himself imaginatively tells of the time when George Bernard Shaw supposedly dropped into his establishment. Then there's the community's encounter with a "willowy" (read: gay) stranger and his crew of ballet dancers, a man who--to everyone's surprise-- proves to be no mean raconteur. Bradbury's prose is as vibrant and distinctive as the landscape in which these delightful tales are set. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Bradbury goes mainstream with a hymn to Ireland and alcohol, focusing on writing a screenplay with John Huston for the director's film Moby Dick. Set in Dublin and the Irish countryside where legendary director Huston has settled in as a squire, the story and the Irish gift for gab allow Bradbury's love of metaphor to find a basis he's never known before. With all of the silver-tongued folk speaking inspiredly in the normal tenor of their stout-and whiskey-fueled conversation, Bradbury spouts eloquence as naturally and exuberantly as John Millington Synge--and fine talk it is you'll be hearing. Young Bradbury arrives at the Huston estate in awe of Huston and instantly finds himself in company with a laughing ogre given to whiskey pranks and the famed man's false bonhomie. The episodic plot circles about a wedding that Huston decides to throw for a longtime friend, less about the actual scriptwriting and difficulties met in harnessing the White Whale to the needs of Hollywood. Other eddies include the (fictitious) arrival of teetotaler George Bernard Shaw at Heeber Finn's pub, during which the old renegade outtalks even the most inspired of the whiskey- laced barfolk; the pub's reaction to a visiting team of gay ballet dancers, which turns wittily on Finn's recognition that the Irish male is closer in nature to these gays than one would suspect; and on Huston's savaging of Bradbury's self-esteem. It rains twelve days out of ten in Ireland, we discover: ``I stood looking at the gray-stone streets and the gray-stone clouds, watching the frozen people trudge by exhaling gray funeral plumes from their wintry mouths, dressed in their smoke-colored suits and soot-black coats, and I felt the white grow in my hair.'' Despite the apt but sad romanticizing of alcohol, and an unfortunate title echo of Peter Viertel's novel White Hunter, Black Heart (about Viertel's scripting The African Queen with Huston), Bradbury's triumph. He has never written better. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380789663
• ISBN-13: 978-0380789665
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #609,793 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not his best, August 29, 2006

By	Christian Deichert (Wiesbaden, Germany) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Green Shadows, White Whale (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of both worlds, fact and fiction, May 30, 2003

By	papaphilly (Bayonne, NJ) - See all my reviews

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great prose., January 4, 2000

By	Mike Springer (Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews

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.