** spoiler alert ** Short, sweet, beautiful -- and, admittedly, a little close to home. I read Big Fish for Wallace's brilliant usage of the English language and stayed for the gripping tale of a father as mythic as he was mysterious, epic courtesy of the shadows he cast even in the twilight of his life. It's a good read and quite swift; if you're in need of a lovely, summery story that you can get through in an evening, then Big Fish is for you.

That being said, there are a few things that nag me RE: this tale and it mostly whittles down to the occasional hiccup in transitions within a story. Case in point is the chapter where Edward hightails it out of Ashland and has to go through the Town With No Name. Although I was reading this quite late and therefore may have missed the phrase that knitted everything together, there are points wherein it's hard to parse out why Dog started to like Edward save that... well, he was supposed to. These moments, however, are few and far between; mostly, the mythic/tall tale tone is seamless and gorgeous, if not heart-breaking at points when you realize the how and why of the Elder Bloom's shadowy past.

At any rate, I think Big Fish did what I needed it to do: spice up my imagination and give me stylistic aspirations in my own writing. And, of course, the usual: a lovely, thoughtful tale to enjoy in one sitting.