Big Fish

Last Tuesday was the open discussion on Big Fish: A novel of mythic proportions  by Daniel Wallace.  This is the book that was chosen as the community read.  The discussion took place at the county library and was attended by over 30 people.  Big Fish is one of those books you either like or hate.  It is a sons' recollections of his father.  The dad wasn't home much while William was growing up and now he is dying.  William wants to know more about his dad, but his father is not very forthcoming.  All William has is a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts he does have.

Each chapter is a different story about his dad.  Here's an example:
"He was so fast it was said he could arrive in a place before setting out to get there.  It was not running so much as it was flight, his legs seeming never to touch the ground but move across a current of air.  He never asked to race but many asked to race him, and though he tried to dissuade them, a young man's taunts and jibes are not easily sustained.  He would end up, invariably, removing his shoes - for he never ran in his shoes - and waiting for his eager counterpart to get ready.  Then they were off - or rather, it was over, for there was never any race to speak of.  Before the young man who wished so to test his skills against those of my father had even left the starting line, he viewed the dim figure of the man he had hoped to beat."

I enjoyed to book up to the last chapter.  The father was at deaths door and he asked William to drive him somewhere.  They ended up at the river and William carried his dad in his arms and"all of a sudden my arms were full of the most fantastic life, frenetic, impossible to hold on to even if I'd wanted to, and I wanted to.  But then all I was holding on to was the blanket, because my father had jumped into the river.  And that's when I discovered that my father hadn't been dying after all.  He was just changing, transforming himself into something new and different to carry his life forward in.  All this time, my father was becoming a fish."

I just sat there shaking my head at such an absurd ending. Anyway, the discussion at the library was lively.  Half of the folks were like me, not really understanding what was going on in the book.  The other half had also seen the movie, and they said that cleared up a lot of the questions that they had had.

This would be a great book to use in a Language Arts class as it is full of symbols,  innuendos, Greek and Roman myths and lots of fantasy.