book data
1088 ratings, 3.57 average rating, 164 reviews
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published
2004
by Pocket Books
binding
Paperback, 192 pages
isbn
0743484258
(isbn13: 9780743484251)
description
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 standp...more
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avg 3.57
Read in July, 2007
I think the biggest problem I had with this book is that I saw the movie first. I personally believe that Tim Burton can improve upon most anything, and with Big Fish that's exactly what he did.
The book was very orignal, good story, good characters. I'm sure if I didn't only compare to the movie I would have loved it. But Edward Bloom was a better person in the movie. Reading the book was like watching him downgrade.
The book was very orignal, good story, good characters. I'm sure if I didn't only compare to the movie I would have loved it. But Edward Bloom was a better person in the movie. Reading the book was like watching him downgrade.
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Please, read this book. Once in a while, like The Five People You Meet in Heaven, comes a book that is original, full of wonder, Chronicle of Narneish, so full of meaning and beauty that all must buy it, read it, and pass it on. This is perfection. Oh, also see the Tim Burton version of this. As a matter of fact, just see all of Burton's movies. How else to do such a story? Great!
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Read in November, 2008
When I read "Mr Sebastian and the Negro Magician" (check out my review), I knew I needed to read everything Daniel Wallace had written. "Big Fish" is a thin book, which is my only complaint -- I just wanted his stories to go on and on.
While I didn't like this book as well as "Mr Sebastian", I still read it all in one sitting and loved how Wallace spins a story. He has a magical imagination, and an often lyrical sense to his humor. I really enjoyed this, and c...more
While I didn't like this book as well as "Mr Sebastian", I still read it all in one sitting and loved how Wallace spins a story. He has a magical imagination, and an often lyrical sense to his humor. I really enjoyed this, and c...more
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Read in July, 2008
Somewhere along the line, I gained the impression that this book had whole chapters of content I'd be more comfortable skipping. As it turned out, there was nothing too bad.
It was, however, pretty dang scattered, and I might not have had the patience for it if I hadn't already seen the movie.
Really, I think I liked the movie better. I like the addition of a plot, and though maybe that weakens the theme of immortality and understanding through stories however truthful, I'll take that sacr...more
It was, however, pretty dang scattered, and I might not have had the patience for it if I hadn't already seen the movie.
Really, I think I liked the movie better. I like the addition of a plot, and though maybe that weakens the theme of immortality and understanding through stories however truthful, I'll take that sacr...more
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I think the guy who plays the main character in this movie is attractive, but I forgot his name. If that's not a good reason to read the book, then I don't know what is.
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24 comments
Hmmm.... well, I read the book because I loved the movie so much, but I owned the book before I ever saw the movie.
I think that maybe it was Burton's magic or something that made the movie so special.
The book was pretty disjointed. It didn't really bring it all together like I wanted it to do. It was all over the place and I think it could have worked if it were done right, but I don't think Wallace accomplished what he set out to do.
I think that maybe it was Burton's magic or something that made the movie so special.
The book was pretty disjointed. It didn't really bring it all together like I wanted it to do. It was all over the place and I think it could have worked if it were done right, but I don't think Wallace accomplished what he set out to do.
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Read in July, 2008
This is one of those few cases when the movie is better than the book. I watched the movie first of course and loved it. I picked up the book to see if there were any more stories that weren't put into the movie. I didn't finish the book because I didn't find it as fascinating as the movie. I thought the stories in the movie were so much more extreme and fairy tale like, it made the stories in the book to normal.
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Read in August, 2008
Weirdly, I liked the movie way better.
Somehow, the original book format lacks the spirit and charming weirdness of the movie. And that was basically what was good about the movie. Also, the characters seemed flat to me. It was still an interesting portrayal of a father-son relationship, and it still had amusingly unbelievable stories, though. It just lacked...cohesion. I kind of want to say that it lacked "soul," but I don't think that's entirely accurate; there was a definite spir...more
Somehow, the original book format lacks the spirit and charming weirdness of the movie. And that was basically what was good about the movie. Also, the characters seemed flat to me. It was still an interesting portrayal of a father-son relationship, and it still had amusingly unbelievable stories, though. It just lacked...cohesion. I kind of want to say that it lacked "soul," but I don't think that's entirely accurate; there was a definite spir...more
Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone
This is the story of a man's life - a father, a teller of jokes, a traveling salesman - told with Biblical grandiosity. A job cleaning animal feces from cages as a veterinarian's assistant is a trial; a woman's suffering is the impetus for a great flood that inundates a town. The father pushes his son away with his jokes, and the frustrated son tries time and again to provoke just one honest utterance from his dying father's lips. I am not yet sure if the author implies a certain wisdom in the j...more
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So there I was, Daniel Wallace was going to be in Fairhope and I had not read Big Fish. I had seen the movie and was not that interested but I didn't want to have not read his book. And the book made sense and was good and I wondered why would Tim Burton make the movie as he did and lose the real story of the book. The movie was Tim Burton's story. The book is Daniel Wallace's. The book is a better story.
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
mature reading
This book enlightened my heart. It made me realize how different everyone's life is, and how many people have so many interesting things that have happened to them. This book describes that life of Edward Bloom, narrated by his son William Bloom. William Bloom searches for people and places that took place in his father's life, and talks to them about what really happen and what did not.
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Read in May, 2008
This book is pretty awesome. William Bloom's father, Edward, is dying. William struggles to understand who his father was--and is--through the many jokes, stories, and legends his father has told him over the years. The problem is that his father's penchant for making people laugh makes him a less-than-trustworthy source. The result is a series of stories about Edward's life retold by William-- stories about his father and a mermaid, his father ripping the heart out of a wild dog's chest, hi...more
Read in April, 2007
"A big fish in a big pond." This is all that Edward Bloom has tried to be throughout his life.
Big Fish is the story of William, Edward's son, as he struggles to find out who his father really was. Edward is dying from cancer (and subsequently "dies" four times throughout the book); unfortunately, all of William's queries are met with tall tales and jokes.
The stories of Edward's death are interspersed among tall tales from his life as William remembers them. ...more
Big Fish is the story of William, Edward's son, as he struggles to find out who his father really was. Edward is dying from cancer (and subsequently "dies" four times throughout the book); unfortunately, all of William's queries are met with tall tales and jokes.
The stories of Edward's death are interspersed among tall tales from his life as William remembers them. ...more
Read in January, 2005
Read this book a few years back. Really enjoyed it. It reads like a bunch of short stories, which makes sense because this was Daniel Wallace's first attempt at a novel. Prior to Big Fish, he'd written only short stories.
The chapters have titles like, “In Which He Speaks to Animals," "How He Tamed the Giant," "His Immortality”, and while such tales read charmingly like American folktales, William realizes that the myth built up around his father – by other people and by William himself – has kept him from knowing anything at all about the man his father really is.
That’s pretty much it; it’s a very quick read, Edward Bloom is built up to Paul Bunyon-like proportions (metapho...more
That’s pretty much it; it’s a very quick read, Edward Bloom is built up to Paul Bunyon-like proportions (metapho...more
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Read in January, 2006
Though Wallace's fine father and son story is a good read, it's one of the few examples in literature where I found the movie to be an improvement on the book. One of the others is The Wizard of Oz.
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
lovers of the movie
I am so glad that I saw the movie before I read the book because I most likely would have hated the movie had I see it second. The book, as most are, is far far better than any movie could reproduce. The character development is so much more powerful, portraying the son in a much better light and far easier to take to than the William in the movie. The story line and history of Edward Bloom is actually very different. Many more things happen and many things that happen in the movie (like the cir...more
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Interesting story of a son confronting his dying father. In the end, rather than blaming his father for his long absences and lack of intimacy, he embraces his father for who he is.
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
those with an imagination, although the book provides much of that itself
When i read this book, I sort of felt like I was cheating considering I've seen the movie of the same title at least 3 times. While the book and the movie are very similar, the book does contain some alternate images and some details the movie left out. This book was very enjoyable to me because it was like a vactaion for the mind. I often stopped reading in order to create an image in my mind of what I was reading. While i enjoyed the visuals this book illustrated, I often found myself so swept...more
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Read in April, 2004
I'm not sure if I liked this book or not. It was interesting to read and the imagery was incredible. However, the book was extremely disjointed and I kept waiting for something to happen that never did. I don't think I understood the book entirely and would probably read it again at some later date. There was so much symbolism that I know what I did catch just barely scratched the surface of the deeper part of the book. However, after my first reading, if I was forced to say if I liked it or not...more
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quotes from this book
"When a man's stories are remembered, then he is immortal."
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