false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171990610m/129984.jpg 129984 21 In <I>Big Fish</I>, 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. <I>--Mary Park</I> 855961 book 1998 Big Fish total:1706|5:284|4:578|3:559|2:240|1:45| 1706 5934 2429 234 2 6 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 10 08:57:49 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 09:14:02 -0700 2007
The book was very orignal, good story, good characters. I'm sure if I didn't only compare ...more...]]> 5 2 false false Fri Jul 04 14:28:34 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 04 14:32:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Nov 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 12:05:30 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 12:21:30 -0800 2008 1
While I didn't like this book as...more...]]> 0 1 false false Thu Jul 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 26 22:20:10 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 24 21:09:18 -0700 2008
It was, however, pretty dang scattered, and I might not have had the patience for it if I hadn't already seen the m...more...]]> 0 1 false false Sun Dec 07 20:49:11 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 20:50:07 -0800 2008 3 3 false false Mon Apr 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 23 12:42:15 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 14 18:54:29 -0700 2008 at the end, which made me smile. It wasn't until the end
of the book, that it made sense in it's entirity. I loved
the ending in this book. All the mythology and e...more...]]> 2 0 false true Fri Jan 30 07:26:50 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 11:32:03 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Jun 02 11:47:04 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 06 16:38:12 -0700 2008
I think that maybe it was Burton's magic or something that made the movie so special.

The book was pretty disjointed. It didn't really bring it all together lik...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Oct 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 16:58:32 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 05:41:06 -0700 2009 until I had already seen the movie about 3 times. Anyway, while the book and the movi...more...]]> 2 1 false false Sun Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 13 18:28:02 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 27 21:02:40 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 true false Wed Nov 11 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Oct 28 08:13:45 -0700 2009 Thu Nov 12 14:26:44 -0800 2009 0 Big Fish is a story of a son's journey to define his relationship with his father. This journey was not an especially easy one as Edward Bloom loved to tell his son tall tales about almost everything. Eventually William grew frustrated with the tall tales because he believed that maybe there was a b...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 08:18:55 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 14:01:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 19 16:19:52 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 16:36:26 -0700 2009 So throughout the story, the child, Will liste...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Jul 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 13:33:19 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 13:14:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jul 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 19:46:10 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 19:51:27 -0700 2009
It's described on the cover as "comic & poignant". I'll give it the poignant descriptio...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Feb 03 11:07:45 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 03 11:07:59 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Aug 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 29 20:44:46 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 23 16:38:44 -0700 2008
Somehow, the original book format lacks the spirit and charming weirdness of the movie. And that was basically what was good about the movie. Also, the characters seemed flat to me. It was still an interesting portrayal of a father-son relationship, ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Feb 03 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 03:37:14 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 03:37:14 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Apr 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 07:03:55 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 07:07:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 13 13:18:42 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 13:21:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=129984