Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Friday, December 20, 2013

"Last Night of the World" by Ray Bradbury

"""Do you know, I won't miss anything but you and the girls. I never liked cities or autos or factories or my work or anything except you three. I won't miss a thing except my family and perhaps the change in the weather and a glass of cool water when the weather's hot, or the luxury of sleeping."



I am a bit embarrassed to admit I have never read Ray Bradbury's classic dystopic  novel Fahrenheit 451 about an America in which books are outlawed and burned when rooted out.    I have seen the movie.  A few days ago in The Huffington Post there was an article listing ten classic short stories that can be read in under ten minutes.  ("Last Night of the World" will take you three minutes tops.). Among them was "Last Night of the World (1951, first published in Esquire) by Ray Bradbury so now I have at last read a work by Ray Bradbury.  Have you ever wondered how you would react if you knew today the world was coming to an end?  This story deals with this question.

I won't tell too much of the story as you can read it online if you want. A man comes home from work and tells his wife the world is coming to an end tonight.  He tells her all his coworkers had the same dream.  His wife asks will it be war, plagues, or what form.  He says the dream did not say.  As he and wife talk about and accept this, while in bed, his wife realizes a faucet is leaking and gets up to shut it off to prevent water bill from going up.  Then they laugh and say why bother.  As the story ends, we do get the feeling the world is coming to an end.  I really liked the last words of the husband, quoted above.  

I liked this story a lot, just Google it if you want to read it.  











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