Fahrenheit 451

First published in 1953, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed classic of censorship and defiance is his best-known work. Bradbury later observed that the novel also explores human feelings of alienation and the effects of television and other mass media on the reading of literature. Narrator Stephen Hoye is as powerful a storyteller as Bradbury is a writer. Much of the book focuses on Guy Montag, a fireman who lives in a future society that discourages individual thought. Montag is one of the firemen who actually starts fires instead of extinguishing them--and what he burns is books. Despite Hoye's excellent delivery, this audio starts off too slowly but catches fire towards the middle. B.C.E. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Starred review from October 25, 2010
After years of working as a fireman—one who burns books and enjoys his work—Guy Montag meets a young girl who makes him question his profession and the values of the society in which he lives. Stephen Hoye's narration is perfectly matched to the subject matter: his tone is low and ominous, and his cadence shifts with the prose to ratchet up tension and suspense. He produces spot-on voices, and his versions of the gruff Captain Beatty, the playful Clarisse, and the fearful professor Faber are especially impressive. A Ballantine paperback.

This cautionary tale published in the 1950s is even more chilling and disturbing today in this new production. Narrator Scott Brick portrays fireman Guy Montag with the overarching dread of a man realizing that the world he helped to create is not one in which he wishes to live. Guy burns books for a living, but when book-loving neighbor Clarisse "disappears" and leaves her books for Guy, he chooses to take her books and live with a group of intellectuals who are memorizing the contents of books in hopes that one day the world will regain its sanity. Brick's characterizations are so compelling that book-loving listeners may find tears at the corners of their eyes. R.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine


bournethisway - Fahrenheit 451 was written over 60 years ago by Ray Bradbury which makes it even more impressive how well it has stood the test of time being relatable to the age we're living in today. But basically, the government has enlisted the help of "firefighters" whose job is actually to do just the opposite. Burn all of the books and the homes that house them. Guy Montag, is one such firefighter who meets a very odd peculiar girl named Clarisse. They actually become great friends despite their very distinct lifestyle differences. Clarisse asks very interpersonal, even intimate questions at times which starts causing Guy Montag to ask questions about his own life. As I went on, I was pleasantly surprised. It is one of those books that you could read time and time again and notice something new each and every time. Faber has to be one of my favorite characters. From what I’ve read, he has no ulterior motive and seems fully focused on preserving literature in such a broken world. My image of Faber actually lies in the basis of the kind, very wise grandfather figure many people have in their lives. Someone who has seen it all done it all for you to confide in. I really see this at work assessing Guy Montag’s attachment to Faber. At the moment, Montag is desperately trying to reach Faber with a crippled body that was a result of a standoff with Captain Beatty that actually resulted in his death! Now, Montag on the run makes it to Faber's home is able to throw his scent off in order to escape from the hound, an automaton robot dog that is described with spider legs and a needle housed in its neck that kills upon contact. Montag ends up with a group of homeless folk who protect the memory of literature in their heads. Each one of them has memorized a piece of literature they believed needed to be reserved. What you don't really take note of during all of the action of Montag escaping from the authorities and the dreadful hound is that in the midst of all of this, a war has begun. However, set in the future, we forget that war has a totally different meaning. War meant weapons of mass destruction which therefore means massive collateral damage. In the aftermath of a nuclear attack that leveled the city, Bradbury describes the legend of the Phoenix dying and rising from the ashes. Similar to the Phoneix, humanity would rise again from the ashes of destruction again and again and again. All in all, Fahrenheit 451 is a thought provking, moving story that I highly, highly reccomend!