Big Ray

(Paperback)

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Description

Big Ray's obesity and his mean temper define him, at least to his family. When Big Ray dies, his son Daniel puts his feelings aside, for a while. Years later, Daniel attempts to reckon with the enduring, outsized memory of his father. In this stunning novel a middle-aged man comes to terms with his father's death - and with his life. Told in five hundred brief entries, the complexity of this searing story moves back and forth between the past and the present, between an abusive childhood and an adult understanding. Shot through with humour and insight that will resonate with anyone who has a complicated parental relationship, Big Ray is a staggering family story - at once brutal and tender, unusual and unsettling.

Reviews

A slim and finely-toned book about an overweight ruin of a father ... an uncompromising work of power and grace. I finished reading it a week ago, but I still can't put it down * Jon McGregor *
Psychologically acute, Michael Kimballs narrative is also shot through with gallows humour * Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail *
A surprisingly enthralling portrait of an abusive father who surrendered to self-loathing and a sons struggle to forget him What results is a spellbinding and unflinching meditation on forgiveness, a novel that secures Kimballs reputation as a literary innovator * Time Out, Chicago *
We carry our parents with us. For some, it's a mostly congenial burden, a mixed blessing of joy, resentment, respect, anger, pleasure and pain. For others, including Daniel Todd Carrier, the aptly named narrator of Michael Kimball's astonishingly moving novel, the weight is almost too much to bear Big Ray is an appalling tale told with anger, dark humor and surprising tenderness * Wall Street Journal *
Michael Kimball never ceases to astonish. He is a hero of contemporary fiction * Sam Lipsyte *
In this tender, gorgeous novel, Michael Kimball explores how we try to understand even the most difficult family members * Oprah.com *

Author Bio

Michael Kimball is the author of The Way the Family Got Away, How Much of Us There Was and Dear Everybody, 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 a documentary filmmaker. http://michael-kimball.com/index.html