NOW AND FOREVER: SOMEWHERE A BAND IS PLAYING & LEVIATHAN '99, by Ray Bradbury, William Morrow, 209 pages, $24.95
Ray Bradbury — the legendary author of "Fahrenheit 451," "The Martian Chronicles," "The Illustrated Man," "Dandelion Wine" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" — has added one more book to his list of 36: "Now and Forever," which is actually two novellas packaged together.
Bradbury dedicates the first to Katharine Hepburn and the second to Herman Melville.
In the first, "Somewhere a Band Is Playing," a journalist feels drawn to visit the odd community of Summerton, Ariz., "where no small children play and where the residents never seem to age." He is bringing a message of doom to this town — but it's almost impossible to visit because the train doesn't stop there.
The town is magic and its description is an allegory, the kind of story that might mesmerize children or stop the sleep at a slumber party. After jumping from the train, journalist James Cardiff accepts a ride into town from an older man named Elias Culpepper, who drives a horse and bread wagon. The reporter is very curious about this town "where nothing happens by the hour."
The streets have a look of perfection — roofs freshly tarred or tiled, porch swings hanging straight, shining windows. There is even "a clear running brookstream at noon." Everything is new and fresh, "a perfect town in a perfect blend of silence and unseen hustle and flurry."
Then there is "an assortment of youngish not quite middle-aged gentlemen, nattily dressed ... and interspersed among the men were late-thirties-not-yet-forty women in summer dresses." They are all seated in white wicker rockers, and they looked serene.
Soon Cardiff meets a beautiful young woman named Nefertiti, an Egyptian name meaning "The beautiful one is here." Bradbury tells the story with a light heart, so Cardiff quickly falls in love with Nef. He is especially intrigued when he discovers the town contains only writers, who succeed in using it as a mail-order business.
"Anything you want," says Culpepper, "you write a check, send it off, and before you know it, the Johnson Smith Company in Racine, Wisconsin, sends you what you need. Seebackoscopes. Gyroscopes. Mardi Gras masks. Orphan Annie dolls. Film clips from 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame.' Vanishing cards. Reappearing skeletons."
The story becomes more complex and puts Cardiff to the test. He wonders if he can stay in this amazing town, even though he is not the type of person who does not age. The climax is delightful.
The second novella, "Leviathan '99" is a science-fiction account full of emotion and intelligence. Young Ishmael Hunnicut Jones prepares to go on his first interstellar hunt from Cape Kennedy on a starship commanded by an old blind captain. The trip will last 10 years.
An old astronaut warns him not to go on Cetus 7. They discover that it was the comet Leviathan that put out the captain's eyes.
This is a charming adventure very similar in style to the first one. Now in his 80s, Bradbury's still got it.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com