Little, Big by John Crowley...A Little much for Me...

“The long, long ambiguity of Edgewood, the stifling sense of mysteries continually propounded, never solved, the endless waiting of purposes to be made clear and directions pointed out—all over.” John Crowley

Little, Big

Hello 1000 Bookies!! The latest book I completed off the list of 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die is a fantasy novel by John Crowley entitled Little, Big.  At 564 pages this book was big, not little and candidly a tough read for me.  I believe my wife was happier that I finished the novel than I was, she then would stop listening to me complain about the story during our morning jogs.  Little, Big is an acclaimed novel but its charm was lost on me.  Books are like wine; you like what you like no matter the awards or medals they win.  I was not wild about Little, Big. 

The book was released in 1981 and has received acclaim in literary circles.  James Mustich writes about the story, “[C]alling it fantasy isn’t quite right, for the book crosses boundaries at every turn, from fairy tale to bildungsroman [ which I had to look up and define as a story dealing with formative years or spiritual education], family saga to romance, myth to tale of political intrigue” The book fits all of those descriptions but I observed that while trying to appeal to all those descriptions, the book became very confusing. 

The book is set in upstate New York and New York City.  Most of the characters are 4 generations of one family, The Drinkwater/Barnable Family. The family is steeped in a history of the occult and a belief in the supernatural especially the realm that is inhabited by fairies.  The fairies are not the main characters and are always just hidden for most of the story.  At key moments the fairies emerge but are poorly explained.  At one point in the story you meet a character named Russell Eigenblick, who is elected President of the United States.  You come to find out he is the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and he was awakened from a thousand-year sleep to protect the Fairies.  

John Drinkwater, patriarch of the family and an architect, builds a large house named Edgewood.  Edgewood is revealed to be a door leading to the outer realm of Faerie.  He marries a woman named Violet.  Violet is a young lady who believes in fairies and the occult.  She uses a set of tarot cards to foretell the future.  When they marry, Violet is pregnant with someone else’s child.  The Drinkwaters raise their four children at Edgewood (Auberon, Nora, August and another daughter).  Their son, August is an interesting character, he wants power over women and the fairies grant that.  August is quite promiscuous.  August eventually disappears.  Violet and her daughter Nora then have to raise August’s son, John Storm Drinkwater.  

Eventually John and his wife have two daughters, Alice and Sophie.  The story opens with a prophecy that a man would walk from the city and marry Alice.  On a trip to New York City, Alice meets Smokey Barnable, a friend of her cousin.  Smokey walks from the city to arrive at Edgewood and marries Alice. I found the story of Alice and Smokey quite sweet.  He walked to her.  However, their romance does go astray.  Smokey begins sleeping with Alice’s sister, Sophie, and she names him the father of her daughter, Lilac, who at one point is kidnapped by the Fairies.  Smokey is always on the outside looking in. He knows that the Drinkwaters believe in the supernatural, and that they believe they are living in a tale.  Smokey just does not believe. 

Alice and Smokey have four children but it’s their son, another Auberon that moves forward as the hero of the story.  Auberon is tired of life at Edgewood, he wants to deny the supernatural and he leaves for the City.   Auberon moves into the “farm” that his cousin George Mouse owns in the city.  George had introduced his parents many years before.  Auberon meets and falls in love with Sylvie, a Puerto Rican girl with a “Destiny”.  Although specifically we do not know what the destiny really is until the very end of the story. There is also Auberon’s prophecy that one day Sylvie will break his heart.  

The fairies kidnap Sylvie and break into their apartment and steal her stuff to convince Auberon that she left him.  Auberon becomes a drunk and a vagrant.  He spends years “seeing” Sylvie in every girl and a guy or two that he meets at bars.  Auberon returns to Edgewood to get his life together and has a reckoning with this dad where they both commiserate about not believing what the others believe.  Finally, he gets his life together and begins writing for a soap opera.  The end of the tale is a banquet where a Prince and Princess of Fairies will be crowned.

I am a huge fan of supernatural stories. However, I must say, I found this story confusing. The author jumps around between different time periods which is interesting.  There are many story assumptions that are implied.  There are some disturbing aspects to the story—with allusions to incest and other taboo subjects.  Critics have drawn parallels between Little, Big and two similar stories, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  The end reflects the Shakespeare comedy.  Another segment of the story I found interesting.  Fairies make deals with humans and at times move their souls into animals.  We would later see something similar in the Harry Potter Series with horcruxes.  

I shared that I was reading this book with a colleague who enjoys fantasy novels and her comments regarding the story were similar to mine. “I’m left with the feeling that the author may have bit off more than he could chew”, my colleague Sunny stated, “The last couple of chapters seemed like a mad dash to tie up a bunch of loose ends and it didn’t quite hit the mark. Like, maybe he had made the story too complicated and even he couldn’t sort out what was really going on.” 

“That being said, there are many many parts of the book that are beautiful and captivating, or that impart a deep meaningful lesson. Maybe part of my frustration is that many of the events that I found fascinating were glossed over or dropped without explanation.”  Sunny provided some examples of the unanswered questions such as understanding Sophie’s dreams; Auberon the younger’s writing a story of Fredric Barbarossa; and finally what was actually in the book written by the first John Drinkwater if it was not actually a battleplan?”

Sunny also made a great point which I concur, we readers are all the character of Smokey looking at this story from the outside, being an outsider.  Sunny specified, “I feel about the book, like I feel that Smoky must have felt for his whole life. Only, Smoky comes to an epiphany before his death in which everything is revealed and made right for him. I was left in that vaguely confused state where I was sure that I almost understood, that it almost made total sense, and surely the next page would present that final piece of the puzzle and I would be able to see the whole picture. The answer was always just around the corner, but the closer I came to it, the farther away it was.”

Keep Reading My Friends.