The Great Wide World Over There by Ray Bradbury

Cabin in the woods but not a horror story.

Here is another disappointing Ray Bradbury short-story saved by Levar Burton's excellent dramatic reading. He imbues such delicate care to Bradbury's words, highlighting the cadence and rhythm of his prose. Bradbury's technique and command of language rivals the very best writers. Stylistically, his syntax and choice of words are so precise. His writing is rarely an issue; rather, this story was too slight, leaving me indifferent. 

The Great Wide World Over There establishes a sense of nostalgia and sentimentalism for a bygone era when letter writing was still the preferred method for long-distance communication. Cora and her husband are an elderly couple living in the mountains, isolated from society. Both of them are also illiterate and therefore have no access to any news about the outside world via mail. Hence, the title of the story. Their nephew visits them one summer and ends up helping Cora to correspond with various mail subscriptions. Her world turns upside down and this becomes the most exciting thing to ever happen in her entire life. Ironically, she gets so wrapped up in the excitement of sending and receiving mail that she does not take the opportunity to learn how to read or write. The nephew eventually leaves and she goes back to living her old life. The ending is bittersweet but there is not enough depth or substance here for me to recommend it. Skip.