I think it was that sentence that led me to say, finally, I give up, I just can't finish this book. Or maybe it was the introduction of the Noisy Bridge Rod and Gun Club. Or the Cosmo-Opticon.
I guess we can safely say that Little, Big is a fantasy, set roughly in the 20th century somewhere near New York City. The world inhabited by Smoky and his relatives, as well as some talking fish and highly literate mice (rodent-type mice), isn't governed by the same laws of time and space that we are familiar with. Maybe I simply don't have the kind of brain that can fully appreciate fantasies, but I just didn't find any charm in all this. I read some lyrical passages, but that wasn't enough for me to truly engage in the "story." And the quirkiness of the characters was enjoyable and sometimes entertaining but the hopping back and forth in time (am I right about that?) made it hard for me to know who these people are in relation to each other.
I don't think this is a bad book, but I know it's not giving me the kind of reward that well-written books or cleverly plotted books can offer.
I feel bad leaving Ed, and maybe Larry and Paula behind, but I'll read your comments with interest and maybe even chime in if I have something worthwhile to say. Meanwhile I plan to finish reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan (not just an interesting book but an important one that I highly recommend) and then I'll start The Book Thief.
Sorry guys, I gave it a good try but I'm 61 and the shelves are sagging with good books I want to read before the end.
Pam
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1 comment:
Too bad. As well as being a personal favorite, this book is one of the finest written in the 20th century. Many fine books don't have plots that can be easily summed up, wrapped up, digested -- Proust's magnum opus is one, Finnigan's Wake is another. Little, Big has much more "plot" than either of these, but blessedly it offers us so much more.
The book is about mood, poetry, memory, ideas. It makes sense when understood as a whole, which you cannot do if you don't finish it. I hope you return to this one day.
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