John Crowley: Little Big

[Ell]

June 2005 Book of the Month:

Book Description from Amazon.com

Little Big tells the epic story of Smoky Barnable -- an anonymous young man who meets and falls in love with Daily Alice Drinkwater, and goes to live with her in Edgewood, a place not found on any map. In an impossible mansion full of her relatives, who all seem to have ties to another world not far away, Smoky fathers a family and tries to learn what tale he has found himself in -- and how it is to end.

 

[truly violet]

I read this quite a few years ago, I remember that I actually felt as if I had entered that weird altered not quite human world that intersected with the world of the unseen.
I swear I felt hypnotized by this book, and it took a long time to shake that feeling off.
My copy was damage to the point of not being readable, and ever since I have wanted to get a new copy.
I would love to read it during summer days that are not sunny but rainy, as to me that type of day captured the other worldlyness of this book.

vi

 

[cholla]

I envy you your response to the book--other people I know have felt very much the same way about it.

Me, not so much

I am a huge fan of alot of the more offbeat old Georgian and Victorian authors and their heirs, so I just couldn't get past John Crowley's writing, which to my ear (and eye) did not ring true. Some contemporary (to us, I mean) authors can pull off that sensibility--Joan Aiken, for instance, used to do it really admirably in her youth, I thought--and some can't.

But then JM Barrie was a gen-u-ine Victorian and he makes my ears and eyes bleed too.

I think I'm just becoming impossibly cranky in my old age

 

[Øystein]

Funny, I just dusted this off and started reading it as I was having breakfast. Popped by this board right after and find a thread about it! Nice synchronicity. Alas, now I have to have the willpower to not glance at the thread again until I've finished reading the damned thing. A wee case of spoilerphobia and all that. Opening the book by quoting Chesterton was a quick way to make me like the author as well.

 

[Vanessa2]

hi,

I just borrowed this book from the Library to read so that I can discuss it you you guys and all I can say is:

Wow! It's a BIG book!

 

[Shai]

Is this book worthwhile putting in the effort for?

I give a book a fair go before giving up on it, but I've stopped reading after only the third chapter. I just couldn't get into it, and the author had yet to introduce any plot for me to hold onto. Secondly, I was unfortunate enough to take a bad-print copy from the library, so that I was forced to stop every dozed pages or so due to sore eyes.

If people think its worth the perseverence, (and getting a readable copy of,) then I'll go pull another copy from the library.

 

[Ronny]

I'm having a hard time getting into this book as well. It seems to drag quite a bit and then there will be some description I like and I'll get interested and then it just sort of drags again. Does it pick up at all or is it this slow and rambling the whole way? I was really looking forward to this story and I hope someone can tell me it will get better.

 

[AJ_]

This is one of my all time favorite books. I re-read every few years. Each time I find something new in it and something to think about. John Crowley's writing is just beautiful. It will sweep you away.

 

[steffee]

Never read this but heard so much about it from everyone that I can't believe there are so few posts here!

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

Never read this but heard so much about it from everyone that I can't believe there are so few posts here!

From reading over the few posts above, it seems that the large length deterred some from reading/finishing it.

 

[AJ_]

It's only 500 pages. For me that is the average amount of pages in the kind of books I read.