- Hardcover: 180 pages
- Publisher: Algonquin Books (Sep 3 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1565122178
- ISBN-13: 978-1565122178
- Product Dimensions: 18.5 x 13.5 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,159,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In Big Fish, Daniel Wallace angles in search of a father and hooks instead a fictional debut as winning as any this year. From his son's standpoint, Edward Bloom leaves much to be desired. He was never around when William was growing up; he eludes serious questions with a string of tall tales and jokes. This is subject matter as old as the hills, but Wallace's take is nothing if not original. Desperate to know his father before he dies, William recreates his father's life as the stuff of legend itself. In chapters titled "In Which He Speaks to Animals," "How He Tamed the Giant," "His Immortality," and the like, Edward Bloom walks miles through a blizzard, charms the socks off a giant, even runs so fast that "he could arrive in a place before setting out to get there." In between these heroic episodes, Bloom dies not once but four times, working subtle variations on a single scene in which he counters his son's questions with stories--some of which are actually very witty, indeed. After all, he admits, "...if I shared my doubts with you, about God and love and life and death, that's all you'd have: a bunch of doubts. But now, see, you've got all these great jokes." The structure is a clever conceit, and the end product is both funny and wise. At the heart of both legends and death scenes live the same age-old questions: Who are you? What matters to you? Was I a good father? Was I a good son? In mapping the territory where myth meets everyday life, Wallace plunges straight through to fatherhood's archaic and mysterious heart. --Mary Park
From Publishers Weekly
"People mess things up, forget and remember all the wrong things. What's left is fiction," writes Wallace in his refreshing, original debut, which ignores the conventional retelling of the events and minutiae of a life and gets right to the poetry of a son's feelings for and memories of his father. William Bloom's father, Edward, is dying. He dies in fact in four different takes, all of which have William and his mother waiting outside a bedroom door as the family doctor tells them it's time to say their goodbyes. He intersperses the four takes with stories (all filtered through William's mind and voice) about the elusive Edward, who spent long periods of time on the road away from home and admitted once to his son that he had yearned to be a great man. The father and son deathbed conversations have son William playing earnest straight man, while his father is full of witticisms and jokes. In a plainspoken style dotted with transcendent passages, Wallace mixes the mundane and the mythical. His chapters have the transformative quality of fable and fairy tale, and the novel's roomy structure allows the mystery and lyricism of the story to coalesce. Agent, Joe Regal; author tour. (Oct.) FYI: Wallace is an illustrator who designs T-shirts, refrigerator magnets and greeting cards.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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First Sentence
He was born during the driest summer in forty years. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
He was born during the driest summer in forty years. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't be fooled by the size,
By
This review is from: Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions (Paperback)
Many reviewers, and even the Reader's Guide in Big Fish, speak about its important mythical parallels and insight to father/son relationships. There is no doubt that both of these make Big Fish an incredibly intricate novel. But Wallace's ability to write in the way we remember is what makes Big Fish a great read. Although we generally follow his tale of William Bloom's father, Edward Bloom, in chronological order, it is not necessarily so. The reader is never quite sure when a specific tale occurred, nor does it matter in your understanding of Edward or of William. The tales occur as they are triggered in William's memory, as he strives to understand his father, to see what he has seen and feel what he has felt. Wallace's writing reflects the joys of oral traditions, of storytelling, of fabrication, of fantasy, of re-creating ourselves in other's eyes and the consequences that may bring. Big Fish is a wonderful, multi-layered series of stories combined to create a joy of a novel.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a big book, but has a big heart,
This review is from: Big Fish (movie tie-in): A Novel of Mythic Proportions (Paperback)
With themes of the father (or lack thereof), BIG FISH is one book (and movie) that must not be missed. What could quickly turn into a "lifetime" movie script is brilliantly handled in this novel of true "mythic" proportions. Told with humor and wit, and more than a touch of moving emotion at the end (invest in a good box of Kleenex), the author has so deftly crafted a tale of the father/son relationship that it would be difficult to even begin to describe it here. Would also recommend another great Amazon pick titled CHILDREN'S CORNER by Jackson McCrae-a great collection of stories about the recesses of the human heart.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Small book--big lesson,
By A Customer
This review is from: Big Fish (movie tie-in): A Novel of Mythic Proportions (Paperback)
Not a large book in size physically (it's only 180 pages) this little tome nevertheless makes up for its short stature by packing a wallop. The narrator in the tale gives us the story of a father who comes home after many years to die. What could quickly turn into a "lifetime" movie script is brilliantly handled in this novel of true "mythic" proportions. Told with humor and wit, and more than a touch of moving emotion at the end (invest in a good box of Kleenex), the author has so deftly crafted a tale of the father/son relationship that it would be difficult to even begin to describe it here. Would also recommend three really great books I've read this summer. Amateur marriage, A man named Dave, and The Bark of the Dogwood.
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