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Excellent

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It's a terrific book, and possibly even great. It's not pretentious, it's not larded with `depth' that reeks. It simply tells, through a couple dozen vignettes, the tale of a legendary man named Edward Bloom (not to be confused with pseudo-critic Harold Bloom nor James Joyce's Leopold Bloom). I reviewed the film a while back, and found it to be wanting. That's the way a Tim Burton film can affect you. How that ceaselessly puerile director got a hold of this terrific little book and nearly ran it into the ground is beyond me. The actual book is, as the apothegm goes, much better than the film. Yes, there are many of the famed scenes from the film, but also alot more. The bond between Edward Bloom and his son William, narrator of film and book, is much more strongly developed, and the end far more poignant than the dumbed-down Disneyfied movie. In fact, the only really good purpose the film served was likely in increasing readership for the book. This is why picked up a good copy at a used bookstore, and am thankful for the million dollar commercial the film turned out to be....Oddly enough, the book's episodic nature reminded me most of Girl, Interrupted, another very good book made into a mediocre movie. Of course, Big Fish is more expansive and light-hearted. It also is not in chronological order, as the tales wenf through time. In this way it greatly parallels the masterpiece of Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five. Yet, where Vonnegut's book took a real world `big event' and crammed it inward, to reveal the psychosis of its lead character, Big Fish takes the smallest nubs of a human relationship, and unfolds it writ large. It is also not a regional book, dependent upon place the way William Faulkner's books are, and it is far more lucid, taken as a whole, or some as tales that stand on their own, than the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer or Zora Neale Hurston. Wallace's colloquialism works well, and his sense of character is spot-on, both in those more realistic characters, and even in the fabular ones. I'd like to go more into depth on the book, but its being so short (I read it in little over an hour- but I am a fast reader) makes me loath to spoil some of its charm. Suffice to say, I recommend this book being read by everyone, regardless of age. I just hope Wallace's two later works Ray in Reverse and The Watermelon King are as good when I eventually find them on sale. Also, check out the author's website http://www.danielwallace.org/.

When the literary history of the millennial era is written, years from now, there is likely to be a writer by the name of Wallace who is declaimed one of the greats of his day, and it won't be the flatulent, talentless hack known as David Foster. He'll likely share my first name.

A Novel of Understanding

Customer Rating:
This simple tale warms the heart. Just as William must learn to accept his father's tall tales, so too must we as readers. After all, don't we all just want to be "big fish in a big pond" in our own ways?

Joyful & Insightful

Customer Rating:
Big Fish was an absolutely joyful read. I finished it in about 4 hours over the course of 2 days. The poetic examination of the father/son relationship brought me to tears. Wallace captures the intangible struggle between understanding, & accepting who our parents are, in turn, who we ultimately are. A must read!

BIG mess; BIG waste of time

Customer Rating:
This book was a heinouse waste of time and paper. The pages have little more than juvenile sketches, notes of what could have been a decent story. There was so little here that was even close to imaginative. The structure of the book didn't reveal any kind of clever conceit or grain of wisdom as should myth / fable. The form could have worked if there had been any substance but I just don't find anything redeeming in the authors work.

After the first few pages, I thought, well, maybe the author is going for a very minimalist idea. Maybe William Carlos William and fellow modernists highly influenced the authors choice and eventually we'll see how each word, image is loaded with meaning...nope...

I was surprised when Tim Burton attached himself to a filmed version. And for all the wonder that Burton has created on film...I thought, well, even the best falter now and then. He did not. I thought Burton did what the author should have. He fleshed out so much of what was skeletal in the book. Of course, Albert Finny and Billy Cruddup are always marvelous and bring a great deal to their work as well. Hail Burton for pouring soul into the drek that this book is and rendering something beautiful out of it.

A Book to Keep

Customer Rating:
Big fish is pocket-sized book with a total of 180 pages. It is not a novel; it is more like a Memory to a distant but loving man and the transforming power of story telling and humor. Big fish is the life of Edward Bloom, told as a continuous myth and legend. William Bloom's father is dying. The problem is, William fells like he doesn't really know who really his father is. And that is because Edward Bloom's entire life has been a series of tall, legend and myths for that he knows. He was born on the day Alabama's worst drought in 40 years broken. He could converse with animals. He subdued a wild dog. He bought a small town among many stories toed about hem.

One thing that is obvious in the book is that Edward always communicates through his funny and entreating stories. One of my favorite is this; William who straggles to find out who really he's father is, as his father is dying riches to him looking for a heat to heart conversation. Edward reminisce as they start talking, his eyes look seemingly in to memory, a word of wisdom perhaps and he said "I Don't know if I told you this,...there was this panhandler who stopped me every morning when I come out of this coffee shop near the office. Every day I gave him a quarter. Every day. I Mean, it become so routine the panhandler dint even bother asking any more - I just slipped him a quarter. Then I got sick and was out for couple of weeks and I went back there and you know what he says to me?"
"What Dad?"
"'You owe me three-fifty'''

As I said before Edward is a teller of jokes, which makes this book very entreating beside the fascinating stories he tale. I know as read this book I laughed so hard that people who heard me thought I needed some kind of professional help.

Edward tells his stories because he believes that they will make him immortal and I think we should read them to entertain ourselves. The stories in the book are descriptive enough to draw them in our head and are more like a fairy tale. Which I think would make teenagers and kids candidate audiences/ readers for the book.