Back in print: Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
In 1998, I was studying the marine ecosystem at Venable Elementary School and my favorite books were The Boxcar Children and The Little House on the Prairie. Not only did I dress up as Laura Ingalls Wilder for Halloween, but I frequently wore my green calico dress and bonnet to school so I could play “pioneering” during recess. Needless to say, I was oblivious to the publication of Daniel Wallace‘s Big Fish, as well as the subsequent release of the acclaimed film adaptation directed by Tim Burton.
Luckily for readers of my generation, as well as any other readers who never got a chance to pick up a copy of Big Fish, Algonquin is releasing a new paperback edition of Wallace’s poignant telling of the relationship between father and son. If you watched our recent Ask an Editor video, you got a sneak peak of the new book jacket from Kathy Pories. This paperback edition includes discussion questions and an interview with Daniel Wallace, who comments on the musical adaptation of Big Fish, expected to hit Broadway in 2013.
Big Fish is the story of William Bloom’s attempt to discover the truth about his elusive, and now dying, father. Growing up, William listened as his father told him how he never missed a day of school, saved lives, tamed giants, and knew more jokes than any man alive. Using the tall tales his father told him, William pieces together a series of legends and myths to re-create his father’s life and begins to understand him as a father, a man, and a storyteller.
— Irene Newman, Intern
Praise for Big Fish:
“A charming whopper of a tale.” – The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Refreshing, original…Wallace mixes the mundane and the mythical. His chapters have the transformative quality of fable and fairy tale.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A comic novel about death, about the mysteries of parents and the redemptive power of storytelling.” – USA Today
“An audacious, highly original debut novel…An imaginative, and moving, record of a son’s love for a charming, unknowable father.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Comic and poignant.” – The New York Times Book Review
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Yay! That book was very popular in Auburn when I lived there.
I loved the movie. I never realized it came from a book! I’ll have to look for it!
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from subsequent time? Thank you for the post.