I have begun to read Fahrenheit 45, the famous novel centering around a dystopian society, in which books of all kinds are burned, and those who partake in reading them are labeled as insane. Anyone who possesses a book risks having their property burnt to the ground by "firemen," who, instead of stopping fires, create them. One such fireman, Guy Montag, seems to enjoy this task, saying that the work burnt a fiery smile on his face. Once he meets the somewhat odd 17 year old Clarisse McClellan does he realize that he is not truly happy. That something is missing in his life, and the lives of everyone else in society.

To avoid spoiling major plot details, I'll stop there, but I would like to give some insight into how I feel about the book so far.

Now, don't get me wrong here, the idea that Bradbury created is ingenious, and I do enjoy reading this book. But, I believe that there are quite a few holes in the writing, and that the story is not exactly clear. Bradbury, instead of focusing on explaining what is happening in the story, hones in on one small detail and attempts to create a metaphor out of that one thing. This would not be a problem if he did it every so often, and if it was better integrated into the actual story. Such an occurrence can be found on nearly every other page, and at points it seems as if Bradbury just threw in some sort of metaphor for the aesthetic. It is just too distracting when Guy is on a public subway thinking about being a child and trying to get sand into a sieve, when he suddenly comes up with the idea of reading the Bible to memorize every single verse (I wonder what happened to books being illegal?) and "Denham's Dentifrice," without any explanation as to where that phrase is coming from, suddenly and continuously repeats over and over and over every few lines. Then, Guy thinks about sand and goes into an psychotic spiel about lilies as he gets up and screams at the apparently disembodied Denham's dental detergent voice. I suppose he was expecting us to assume that it was a very annoying toothpaste commercial, and not Guy going insane. Moments worse than this are all over this book, where Bradbury throws some cryptic metaphor at the reader, dragging them away from what is actually happening in the scene, then going right back to the story, expecting the reader to follow every vague little detail.

Another thing that bothers me is Guy's character. He seems mentally unstable, and makes so many irresponsible decisions. He never seems to think about how his actions will impact him in the future, and this often seems to be the cause of his problems. But, this could also be to emphasize how screwed up their society is. If the characters aren't maniacs, they're naïve fools that are oblivious to all of their surroundings.

All in all, I find the concept of this book to be quite interesting, but I believe it could've been better executed.