Big Ray: A Novel - Hardcover

Kimball, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1608198545 ISBN 13: 9781608198542

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2012

Synopsis

Big Ray's temper and obesity define him. When Big Ray dies, his son feels mostly relief, dismissing his other emotions. Yet years later, the adult son must reckon with the outsized presence of his father's memory. This stunning novel, narrated in more than five hundred brief entries, moves between past and present, between his father's death and his life, between an abusive childhood and an adult understanding. Shot through with humor and insight that will resonate with anyone who has experienced a complicated parental relationship, Big Ray is a staggering family story-at once brutal and tender, sickening and beautiful.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Kimball is the author of The Way the Family Got Away, Dear Everybody, and, most recently, Us, and his novels have been translated into a dozen languages. His work has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in the Guardian, Vice, Bomb, and New York Tyrant. He is also responsible for the project Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard) and a couple of documentary films. He lives in Baltimore. Visit his website at michael-kimball.com

Reviews

This slim novel, told in a series of short entries, packs the emotional charge of a lifetime. A son explores his fraught relationship with his obese father, who has recently died alone in his dingy apartment. Bouncing from one time period to another, the tale chronicles the father’s early life, his transition to adulthood, and his role as an abusive father and husband. At times the son is relieved that his father has died, but his relief is colored with empathy for a man whose difficult life and extreme weight inspire both pity and disgust. Kimball evokes these emotions with complexity and honesty, revealing in a backward glance the nuances present in any parent-child relationship. --Heather Paulson

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1608198545
• ISBN 13: 9781608198542
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192