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    Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions
    Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions
    Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions
    Audiobook5 hours

    Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions

    Written by Nitsan Chorev

    Narrated by Tom Stechschulte

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Writer and illustrator Daniel Wallace has published stories in various literary magazines. Big Fish is a novel reminiscent of Garrison Keillor and Mark Twain. It is a surprising work, filled with imagination, homespun humor, and hyperbole. Edward Bloom, an aging salesman, is dying. As his grown son, William, cares for him, the young man tries to focus on what he knows about his father's life. Story after story surfaces in William's memory, and he shares mythic visions of a fantastic father who was loved by all-a man who was the best runner, fisherman, businessman, and adventurer in the world. Big Fish tells these tall tales of Edward Bloom's life. Punctuated with his vast repertory of jokes, they set the stage for Edward's final, wonderful transformation. Each chapter achieves an added richness through Tom Stechschulte's distinctive narration. An interview with Daniel Wallace is the perfect conclusion to this audio production.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 11, 2011
    ISBN9781456125059
    Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions
    Author

    Nitsan Chorev

    Daniel Wallace is the author of five novels. His first, Big Fish, was made into a motion picture of the same name by Tim Burton in 2003, and a musical version on Broadway in 2013. He is a contributing editor to Garden & Gun magazine and is the J. Ross MacDonald Distinguished Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he teaches and directs the Creative Writing Program. Visit his website at DanielWallace.org.

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    Reviews for Big Fish

    3.5/5

    554 ratings37 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A querky little gem. A very nice read, give it a try.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book so terribly much. Highly reccomend this.
    • 4/5
      A lyrical book about a complicated father/son relationship. Edward Bloom has lived his whole life as a near mythological figure to his family. His ambition combined with his storytelling ability has resulted in a broad spectrum of stories about his exploits. He is a master of tall tales and universally admired and adored by all who know him.His son, however, struggles to feel connected to this man who seems to use his legend as a way to keep people at a distance. He knows all the stories by heart, but can't believe any of them or understand their hidden message. All these issues come to a head when his father is diagnosed with a terminal disease. The slow decline of this great man brings them together in many intimate and painful moments. As time grows short, the son seeks to have even a brief moment of connection but keeps being stymied by his father's constant jokes.A painful and beautiful story about grief, love, and understanding.
    • 4/5
      When I rewatched this film recently I noticed it was based on a book, which piqued my delight. It’s all about storytellers and storytelling, about the urbane fantastic and tall tales, so it’s one of my favorite movies. It turns out the adaption is nearly “in name only”, but that doesn’t mean the book is bad.The bare bones are there but 1) There are many many elements that don’t show up in the movie but do in the book and vice versa and 2) the mediums translate to two totally different executions. In the movie, there’s a framing device where the son is attending to his dying father who he’s resented all his life for telling these stories and being an attention-hog/liar. The book is pretty much just these stories–no framing device. It’s like a collection or anthology of tall tales about his dad’s life.They are somewhat less colorful but there are more of them. For example, there is no wolfman-ringmaster in the book. Not even a circus. The old woman’s eye is there, but the circumstances are much less scary than presented in the movie. Tim Burton peeled away the book to its core, then added his own style to it.But both are chock full of content from the anecdotes and tall tales and stories, like in the movie. The only difference is the movie remixes them. It’s like adapting a video game to a movie–you can make all the changes you want as long as it stays true to the spirit of what made the original great (e.g. Silent Hill, Mortal Kombat, Sonic the Hedgehog). And that’s the case here.
    • 4/5
      I would have liked to see a little more meat and potatoes to this story. But I get it and I get why it is formulated the way it is. It is meant to be ambiguous and to the point while still allowing the heart of the reader to not only understand where William's feelings are but how his father subliminally caters to his latent curiosity. How can such a small book be so large? In this case the movie captures way more of the heart in the center of the story. For those who have watched their parents pass, especially their fathers, it is heartbreaking but ultimately invigorates the spirit later down the road, after they have passed and the memories flood in. Big fish dares us and challenges us to be bigger fish and milk our imagination for all it is worth. The moral to the story.... NEVER loose your sense of wonder. When you do...then that is when you truly grow old.
    • 5/5
      Great combination of a father/son story, American tall tales, and a coming to terms with death.
    • 4/5
      I was thinking of movies that I have loved and wondered what ones might have been inspired by books that I was unaware of. I quickly thought of Big Fish and decided to listen to it. If you are unfamiliar with this book, it is basically a tall tale. The film was full of whimsy; it followed the book very well. I have enjoyed both.
    • 2/5
      I loved the movie so had to read the book when I saw it at the library but was very disappointed. I didn't like the father at all and I found the writing very sparse.
    • 3/5
      The film adaptation of Big Fish is a favourite of mine, and I’ve been meaning to read the book for ages. For me though...the film is better. The book is very touching and has some wonderful stories and imagery. The writing is lovely, and if I took each story as a stand-alone then there was a lot to like. But I felt it could have gone so much deeper into what made Edward Bloom do the things he did and live such a split life. I just wanted more, but what I got was a series of toe dips which were too disjointed to make me feel much. I was left wondering what was so special about this man, because to me he just came across as a crap husband, terrible father, and not all that wonderful at all, actually. But maybe that was the point - his son had built him into a mythical being, because the reality was just so mundane and disappointing.
    • 3/5
      I wanted this book to be a novel of mythic proportions but it instead felt like a bunch of short stories with one shared character keeping it all together. I think, if anything, props to whoever it was who made the movie because they took such small scenes that weren't too entirely vivid and turned them into something unforgettable. This is one of those rare instances when I say that I ultimately enjoyed the movie more than the book. The movie left a lasting impression on me whereas I can't really say that for this book. Still a decent story, but it fell short.
    • 4/5
      Less fantastic and more heartwarming than the film it spawned, Big Fish is everything I enjoy about Wallace's writing. His use of language is clear, yet playful, and his stories touch on common human experience. If Edward Bloom isn't your father, he's your grandfather or your uncle or your cousin.
    • 2/5
      One of the very few cases where I liked the film so much better than the book. It took Tim Burton to make an ultimately shallow character who tells unbelievable stories to escape the inevitability of his own death into a quirky, humorous, tragic character.
    • 5/5
      Big Fish is funny, poignant and touching (without descending into sappy). A son tries to connect with his larger-than-life father (who's now dying) through a series of tall tales and alternate versions of his father's life.
    • 3/5
      I grew up loving the Tim Burton movie so I was fairly certain that I was going to enjoy the original novel edition as well and I was disappointed. It had been years since I have seen the movie, but reading this definitely helped a lot of it come back (although a re-watch is definitely happening!). The story follows a son as he tries to piece together his father's life. Having grown up on nothing but tall fantastical tales about his father, Edward Bloom's life, he is unsure what to make of him. Who is his father really? Now that his father is on his death bed he wants to know the truth. The story is told in short little stories, each more fantastical than the next. From a swamp witch, to battling a feral dog, to tricking a giant; each story shows the essence and character of a man. A wonderful, innovative, and fast read with a wonderful movie companion.
    • 3/5
      Well, yes, it's clever and poignant and charming, etc. And I look forward to seeing the movie, as Almeta recommends I do. :) But I just didn't much feel this; don't empathize with the characters or their situations, can't figure them out. So, yes, I like it, but not a whole lot.
    • 1/5
      I picked up this book because of the hoopla surrounding the movie. I was very disappointed and have not been able to make myself finish it.
    • 5/5
      That book that you've always known is your favorite, even though you haven't read it. This is that book. So simple, yet poignant, and as majestically grand as the movie.
    • 5/5
      Great books are much like really good food. I tend to gorge myself, page after page, bite after bite, not able to stop until there's nothing left - no more pages, the plate's empty. Then, with my imagination stuffed to bursting, my little belly bulged just enough to notice, I sit back with a smile and let slip one of those sighs. You know what kind I'm talking about, right? That content yet wistful ahhhhh... completely satisfied but still a touch sad because it's finished, and I can't ever read it again for the first time.Big Fish was that, for me.5 stars
    • 4/5
      ‘[...] I thought of him suddenly, and simply, as a boy, a child, a youth, with his whole life ahead of him, much as mine was ahead of me. I’d never done that before. And these images — the now and then of my father — converged, and at that moment he turned into a weird creature, wild, concurrently young and old, dying and newborn.My father became a myth.’Edward Bloom is an enigma of a man that has always told only the most elaborate yet unbelievable tales of his life. He is a traveling businessman that rarely comes home, even though he has a wife and a son forever waiting for him. Being home so little forces his son, William, to put these tall tales together in his mind in the hope that his father might become less of a mystery to him. When Edward comes home to stay because he’s dying, William seeks to learn as much as he can about his father before it’s too late.‘Beneath one facade there’s another facade and then another, and beneath that the aching dark place, his life, something that neither of us understands.’The tall tales of the man named Edward Bloom are the very definition of far-fetched, yet being the only stories he has ever told has transformed them into a type of myth thus transforming him into an inspiring hero of his own making. He’s encountered a giant and a two-headed Japanese geisha. He’s rode on the back of a giant catfish and explored an underwater town. There have been river-girls and all-seeing glass eyes and even a time when he saved a little girl from certain death by ripping out the very heart of a wild dog. Each piece of his life is told episodically but not always chronologically and serves only to heighten the mystery.‘When a man’s stories are remembered, then he is immortal.’William’s insistence on discovering the true nature of his father never amounts to much as Edward continues to shroud himself in his stories steeped in fantasy. But it ultimately becomes unnecessary anyways. Magical realism runs rampant in this tale, yet at the heart of the story it’s simply about the unconditional love between a father and son.
    • 4/5
      With Big Fish we're talking about fables and wild stories around this man who lived a bigger-than-reality life. The heart of this book, in amongst all these grand tales, is as simple as the strained relationship between a son and his father. All the father's spectacular storytelling constantly gets in the way of the two of them developing a close relationship. The father is the storyteller and the rest of the word is his audience. It's not a new story, but this telling of it really has heart. Reading the book after first seeing the Tim Burton movie version makes it hard to separate them, but they are each a treat in their own way.
    • 5/5
      My father is a fishMy best friend is a little obsessive about reading the novel before seeing the film. Not so, me. I’m a bit more laissez faire in these matters. I saw and thoroughly enjoyed Tim Burton’s 2003 adaptation of Big Fish, and didn’t think too much more about it. Fast forward a decade, and I hear that a major, Broadway-bound musical is on the way. Now I know it’s time to return to the source material.In the past, it has occurred to me that I have an overdeveloped sense of whimsy. I’m a middle-aged woman, for God’s sake. But I love this sort of light, heart-warming, and above all whimsical tale. Daniel Wallace’s debut novel charmed my socks right off! It is, first and foremost, a tale of paternal and filial love. The brief novel is told through the eyes of son William as he watches—four separate times—his father Edward dying. It doesn’t sound like an upper, I know, but Edward Bloom is a larger-than-life character.All his life, Edward was a teller of jokes and tall tales. He’s the sort of character who charms everyone around him. And yet, as much as his father has always made him laugh, William feels that all the jokes and stories have kept him at arm’s length, and that he’s never really gotten to know his father. Now in these final hours, he seeks a deeper connection—all while a greatest hits montage of tall tales recounts Edward’s extraordinary, eventful, and one might even say mythic, life. Edward confesses to his son, “I wanted to be a great man… Can you believe it? I thought it was my destiny. A big fish in a big pond.” Later William acknowledges, “He’s just being him, something he can’t not be. Beneath one façade there’s another façade, and another. And beneath that, the aching dark place, his life.” By the end, however, each man gets what it is he needs:“His illness was his ticket to a better place. I know this now. Still, it was the best thing that could have happened to us, this final journey. Well, maybe not the best thing, but a good thing, all things considered. “In Wallace’s novel, it’s the journey, not the destination. The folksy fables that make up Edward’s life are as colorful and imaginative as anything you could wish for, and full of humor. And Daniel Wallace’s narrative voice is distinctive, as well as distinctly Southern. He has a wonderful, playful way with language, as with this passage: “This is what is meant by last words. They are keys to unlock the afterlife. They’re not last words, but passwords, and as soon as they are spoken you can go.” While Edward is more legend than man, it is William who is the emotional core of the novel. He’s what keeps the story grounded and creates resonance with readers. Everyone knows what it is to love (and feel frustrated by) a parent, and so the emotion William experiences is universal.This was a fantastic introduction (15 years late) to a new novelist. I can’t wait for a chance to see the musical! It will be magical on the stage. It’s been years since I’ve seen the film, but Burton did a lovely adaptation. Many of the stories from the novel are recreated faithfully. Others are altered or created from scratch in the same voice. I was delighted to discover in the book passages that never made it into the film as well. Commenting on adaptation on his blog, Wallace noted that Big Fish was now a book, a movie, and a musical. He offered one final adaptation. Big Fish, the haiku:He hides behind liesand charm. I do not know him.My father is a fish.
    • 3/5
      I picked up Daniel Wallace's "Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions" because I thought the movie was stellar. It had an amazing arc to the story (and when we saw it, I said to my husband that if I was a screenwriter, that is the kind of story I'd want to tell.)Sadly, this was one of the few cases where the movie was just plain better than the book.The stories are similar -- it's a book about the death of Edward Bloom; a man that his only son really never knew. Edward Bloom cracks jokes and tells stories much to the chagrin of his son, who is waiting to know his father, or at least hear some kind fatherly words before it is too late. The stories in the book weren't quite as mythical as in the movie -- the characters just don't shine as bright. The book lacks that beautiful story arc that pulls everything together in the end. It's an okay story that is a quick read, but not one that I'll ever pick up again.
    • 3/5
      A definite case of the movie being better than the book. That being said, the book reads like a series of myths one might find in a folk tale collection. As far literature goes, this book lacks a really concrete character arc. The reader has the sense that William (the son) is telling the stories about his father, but we never get too close to what William is either feeling or believes to be true himself. While not an over all great read, it does have its moments and is a very easy read.
    • 4/5
      Wow, they really amped up the fantastical nature of this story for the movie, didn't they? Granted, it's been a while since I've seen it, but I remembered something a little harder to believe and a little less mundane. The only two instances that seemed familiar were Edward's encounter with the "giant" and meeting the two-headed woman. Otherwise, this mostly sad and philosophical tale focuses more about Edward's relationship with his son, our narrator. The question is still whether Edward's stories are made up, but an extra level is added, seemingly implying the stories might have been made up by William, the son, instead. Still, an interesting meditation on the relationship between father and son, both of which would like for the son to see the father as larger-than-life, a Great man, a Big Fish.
    • 4/5
      Worst ending ever, but I loved the story and the imagery that led up to it. Lovely wording.
    • 1/5
      I loved the movie, so I looked forward to reading the book. I found this to be one of the rare occurrences where I liked the movie better (by leaps and bounds). I had to give the book one star since it is the source material. So little of what I loved about the film was in the book.
    • 4/5
      The son is relating tales of his dying father, trying to understand the man through them. But his father never discussed anything solid/real directly - he relayed everything into jokes, anecdotes, tall tales. I was hooked early and hard by this bit in the first "chapter":---I looked at this old man, my old man with his old white feet in this clear-running stream, these moments among the very last of his life, and I thought of him suddenly, and simply, as a boy, a child, a youth, with his whole life ahead of him, much as mine was ahead of me. I'd never done that before. And these images - the now and then of my father - converged, and at that moment he turned into a weird creature, wild, concurrently young and old, dying and newborn. My father became a myth.---Never seen the movie and likely won't as books are generally better; especially because I doubt how this would translate. It's written like vignettes or episodes, which - for me - made it so hard to put down. Each scenario was powerful, I laughed, cried, cringed...been awhile since a book really zinged me. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      I thought the jokes and stories he made were funny, I couldn't put down the book
    • 1/5
      I saw the film and couldn't wait to read the book... rushed out, bought it, ran a bath..... Started reading and was instantly disapointed with lack of energy in the book that the film was full of. It just seemed totally disjointed, chapters barely a page long, very repetitive and at times depressing. This is the only book where I have enjoyed the film more. After reading about his fathers death, for the 3rd time, I really couldn't wait for the final chapter. Not one part of the book seemed to flow into the next, it is more like a series of childish short stories trying to cover a more meaningful and deep theme. Unfortunately it fails miserably. If you enjoyed the film, leave the book alone. If you fancy the book, watch the film instead.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book. Small as it is, there's a lot there between the covers.Big Fish is a quiet little book, not so much a novel as a series of small vignettes about the life of one Edward Bloom, who is now dying. Edward was one of those people for whom a day-to-day life with his family just wasn't enough, so he ended up missing a lot of his son William's life. As he's laying there dying, William begs to know more about his father, but Edward, who is the king of the one-liners, answers his son's questions with more jokes and reminisces of life before William came along. The book is William's way of trying to know and understand his father -- it is William's construction of Edward's life based on Edward's often over-the-top stories.Edward's tall tales are like a sign pointing William in a general direction toward the truth of his father's life: no matter what situation Edward found himself in, it was always important to him to be the big fish in the small pond. Edward notes that he always wanted to be a great man, and that he always felt it was his destiny to be so. William's reconstruction, which in many ways mythologizes Edward, is his attempt at making his absent father the great man he always wanted to be, even though William feels that a great man is someone of whom it could be said that he was loved by his son. The "myths" William creates about his father in this book are a step toward not only William being able to connect at some level with Edward before he dies, but are also William's way of loving his father as best he can.Big Fish is a small book, but read it slowly because there is a lot to uncover here.A note about the Tim Burton film: the movie picks up these little vignettes and expands them into fuller stories, and is a joy to watch as well as a full-fledged tear jerker at times. If you haven't seen the movie, read the book first so you get more into William's head.