Ray Bradbury was a major talent, and this collection showcases his style of melancholy fiction to its fullest extent. Bradbury's specialty was the liminal, the moment of phase transition between the last golden summer of youth and the weary cares of adulthood, or the release of the accumulated tensions of life into the quiet of the grave. These stories are moody, painterly, and yet, even as I write this review, they fade from my mind. Bradbury is strong wine, and not to my taste.