In Big Fish, 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 selected this book by this sentence:
On one of our last car trips, near the end of m father's life as a man, we stopped by a river, and we took a walk to its banks, where we sat in the shade of an old oak tree.

and this is the book it turned out to be. I am very pleased : ) Thanks!

I thought it was clever, very imaginative.
I was made to ponder the nature of people who only tell jokes and stories to communicate and don't reveal anything about themselves. As happens in the book this causes the people who care about the joker/story teller to fill in the blanks about who the person behind the jokes/stories is. What is the psychology behind such a personality? Are they consciously or unconsciously avoiding revelatory communication? Is it genetic or learned? Are they actually empty? or mentally deficient? or smarter than the rest of us in the being able to hold back? What is actually there? Is it just a defense that becomes so ingrained that the person forgets that there is any other way to communicate?
But that aside, this way of re-creating his father's life, in this artful and fantastical way, was pleasing.

I am putting this book in Trekwoman's Box #2 book box.

Released into book box and is now on its way to NY.

Taking out of Trekwoman's Bookbox #2. I saw the movie and really enjoyed it, the book looks interesting.

My Review: I enjoyed this book, I remember seeing the movie, so I wanted to read the book. There is some humor, but beneath that is the sadness of a relationship between a father and son. The father was gone so much that the son never truly knew his father. He seemed to make up weird fairy tales about what his dad did during his absence. Now his father is dying and he has to try and make sense of it.

Putting into the 7th round of Bookstogive's General Literature VBB.

This book was not picked in a couple of rounds of the General Literature VBB, so I am taking it out. It's available.

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Left on bookshelf when picking up bagels. Enjoy the book!