3 out of 5 stars |
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.
It seems to me that John Crowley had both older fairy
stories and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in mind while he was writing Little,
Big. There is a parallel world
beside (or maybe simultaneously inhabiting) Edgewood, and, like older versions
of fairy stories, its inhabitants seem to be maybe indifferent or maybe hostile
to humanity. Smoky spends his life like
many of the men who marry into the Drinkwater/Bramble family, wondering what
exactly is going on and not really getting a straight answer from the
women-folk. It is very reminiscent of old
tales where one must be very careful of the fairy folk and avoid angering
them. Unfortunately, keeping the details
murky for the main characters also keeps the reader in a fog of uncertainly about
exactly what was, what is, and what will be.
As a reader, I thought that some people knew more than they actually did—Daily
Alice and Sophie, for example. All the
characters seem strangely passive, just accepting that they are part of The
Tale and not striving to understand what’s going on. Even those who start trying to figure things
out seem to get strangely stalled or distracted and give up before they get very
far. Nobody talks, nobody explains their
feelings, nobody gets angry. Only
Auberon throws a real fit and that only when it’s impossible to discuss it with
the person he is angry with, and he inflicts his anger on himself in
self-destructive ways.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Smoky and Daily Alice’s
son is named Auberon (i.e. Oberon, King of the Fairies in Shakespeare) and that
Auberon’s great love is Sylvie, who confesses to him at one point that she is
also known as Titania (Shakespeare’s Queen of the Fairies). By book’s end, the reasons for those names
will become abundantly clear.
The writing is beautiful, the descriptions are lush, the
family connections are complex—my only complaint is that not much seems to be
going on. It’s like a soap opera, where
you can tune in weeks after your last episode and still have a pretty firm grip
on the plot. Not much will have happened
while you are gone (and Auberon and Sylvie actually do work together for a
while writing scripts for a soap opera in the City). Maybe I will re-read this someday, trying to
find the hook that seems to have caused so many people to adore this novel.
Hi Wanda
ReplyDeletei did enjoy the book but your correct not much happens and the family does seem very passive. Even Smoky and Sopie's infidelity, resulting in a child is seen as inevitable or part of the tale rather than something that would normally cause a huge rift in most famlies. but it is beautifully wrtten, I remember all the years later how a character stepped out into the bird loud street..
Regards
Guy