koby's review against another edition
3.0
"I don't know if my sister remembers what I remember. We were haunted by him in different ways."
Daniel's father was over 500lbs when he died and the weight of his death (sorry, bad pun) sits heavily on Daniel. In short sections, almost like bursts of thought, Daniel grapples with his complicated relationship with his father, a man he did not like, yet would talk to daily on the phone. Anyone who has a complicated relationship with a family member - and who doesn't have at least one? - will emphasize with Daniel's dilemma.
This was a dark book that allowed the reader to experience the narrator's struggle with him. I'd probably lean more toward 3.5 stars, but I'll put 3.
Daniel's father was over 500lbs when he died and the weight of his death (sorry, bad pun) sits heavily on Daniel. In short sections, almost like bursts of thought, Daniel grapples with his complicated relationship with his father, a man he did not like, yet would talk to daily on the phone. Anyone who has a complicated relationship with a family member - and who doesn't have at least one? - will emphasize with Daniel's dilemma.
This was a dark book that allowed the reader to experience the narrator's struggle with him. I'd probably lean more toward 3.5 stars, but I'll put 3.
gildius's review against another edition
3.0
Read my review on my blog:
http://www.50ayear.com/2012/08/28/23-big-ray-michael-kimball/
http://www.50ayear.com/2012/08/28/23-big-ray-michael-kimball/
samstillreading's review against another edition
4.0
Big Ray may be a fairly short book at just 182 pages, but its contents certainly do punch well above its weight. Weight being one of the main topics covered in this reflective, semi-autobiographical book in 500 entries, matching the weight of Daniel’s father, Big Ray, when he passed away.
Each entry tells the reader a snippet of life with Big Ray. As the entries accumulate, my feelings became confused. Should I feel sorry for this large man with numerous medical problems whose activities were restricted by his size? When I read about the abuse his wife and children received at his hands, I felt guilty about feeling sorry for him. When I read about Daniel trying to relate to Big Ray, I felt sorry for them both.
You might have guessed now that this slim novel carries a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s powerful, and kudos to Michael Kimball for being able to communicate so much in just a few sentences. It’s easy to feel Daniel’s pain and conflicting emotions. This novel packs as big a punch as a 500 page chunkster. It describes the complexities of family relationships – the good, the bad and the ugly. It is also somewhat of a journal of discovery for Daniel, as he adjusts to life without a father, examining the man he both loved and hated.
I enjoyed how Kimball examined the feelings of his protagonist in this novel, leading up to a big punch where Big Ray’s character (and our sympathies) completely changed. This is emotion laid bare, told succinctly and directly. Definitely worth a read.
Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for the ARC.
Each entry tells the reader a snippet of life with Big Ray. As the entries accumulate, my feelings became confused. Should I feel sorry for this large man with numerous medical problems whose activities were restricted by his size? When I read about the abuse his wife and children received at his hands, I felt guilty about feeling sorry for him. When I read about Daniel trying to relate to Big Ray, I felt sorry for them both.
You might have guessed now that this slim novel carries a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s powerful, and kudos to Michael Kimball for being able to communicate so much in just a few sentences. It’s easy to feel Daniel’s pain and conflicting emotions. This novel packs as big a punch as a 500 page chunkster. It describes the complexities of family relationships – the good, the bad and the ugly. It is also somewhat of a journal of discovery for Daniel, as he adjusts to life without a father, examining the man he both loved and hated.
I enjoyed how Kimball examined the feelings of his protagonist in this novel, leading up to a big punch where Big Ray’s character (and our sympathies) completely changed. This is emotion laid bare, told succinctly and directly. Definitely worth a read.
Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for the ARC.
simsarah79's review against another edition
4.0
This slim book packs a punch. Basically bit thoughts loosely piecing together what this author has dealt with with his father. It says it's a novel but I read that it's autobiographical but slated as fiction so he had more control over it. His dad was something. It was hard to read at times, well written but just borders on the abusive line where the reader feels uncomfortable. Having had a childhood not entirely dissimilar I could empathize deeply but could also be grateful that it wasn't that bad, that other people of course have it much worse.
quick and interesting and raw.
quick and interesting and raw.
melanie_page's review against another edition
5.0
“Having a dead father is distracting.”
Big Ray: the morbidly obese father whom you experience like the first big hill of a roller coaster. Of course, going up the hill it’s not so bad and you wonder why everyone else feels apprehension; you just don’t get it. Then, when things get scary, it happens fast and you’re not ready because you felt so superior in the first place. Narrator Daniel Todd Carrier learns of his father’s death and processes the relationship with the man everyone called “Big” Ray. A lot of what Daniel tells seems normal-ish (throw in some humiliation and occasional hitting), and the hatred for his father reads as exaggerated. It’s a familiar story. Most of the book the reader goes up the hill, and it’s not until the very end that things get really terrible.
The most impressive feat of Kimball is his ability to do two things at once, all the time. Because Big Ray’s father killed a litter of kittens, Daniel isn’t allowed to have pets: “As some kind of shiny consolation, my parents would buy me glossy photobooks of cats and dogs for my birthdays and Christmas. Sometimes, when I was feeling particularly lonely, I would pull one of the glossy photobooks down from the bookshelf in my bedroom and starting naming the cats or the dogs.” Funny and Sad.
It’s easy to write about loving or hating someone, but how does one accomplish both, even three sentences apart? Daniel notes his father’s love of grilling and how “he didn’t like even a hint of blood in his cooked meat. The fire colored his face mean. Sometimes, in the mornings before school, my father would look at the way I was dressed and say, ‘Looking sharp.’ That always made me feel really good.” Hateful and Reassuring.
Kimball’s style takes you along in a familiar manner, assuming you’ve read his other books. His simple sentences do a lot of emotional work. Daniel claims, “It was physically exhausting having a dead father.” Each word is so precise, as Daniel appears sympathetic and cold. Kimball also captures complexity by manipulating vowel sounds: “For most of my life, I have been afraid of my father. After he died, I was afraid to be a person without a father, but I also felt relieved he was dead.” After pairing the soft A sounds of “father” and “afraid” twice, “relieved” is emphasized by how sharp the E’s are in contrast.
Kimball’s novel is fascinating for the work it accomplishes in so little space and reminds us that we need not be complicated to express our complexities.
Big Ray: the morbidly obese father whom you experience like the first big hill of a roller coaster. Of course, going up the hill it’s not so bad and you wonder why everyone else feels apprehension; you just don’t get it. Then, when things get scary, it happens fast and you’re not ready because you felt so superior in the first place. Narrator Daniel Todd Carrier learns of his father’s death and processes the relationship with the man everyone called “Big” Ray. A lot of what Daniel tells seems normal-ish (throw in some humiliation and occasional hitting), and the hatred for his father reads as exaggerated. It’s a familiar story. Most of the book the reader goes up the hill, and it’s not until the very end that things get really terrible.
The most impressive feat of Kimball is his ability to do two things at once, all the time. Because Big Ray’s father killed a litter of kittens, Daniel isn’t allowed to have pets: “As some kind of shiny consolation, my parents would buy me glossy photobooks of cats and dogs for my birthdays and Christmas. Sometimes, when I was feeling particularly lonely, I would pull one of the glossy photobooks down from the bookshelf in my bedroom and starting naming the cats or the dogs.” Funny and Sad.
It’s easy to write about loving or hating someone, but how does one accomplish both, even three sentences apart? Daniel notes his father’s love of grilling and how “he didn’t like even a hint of blood in his cooked meat. The fire colored his face mean. Sometimes, in the mornings before school, my father would look at the way I was dressed and say, ‘Looking sharp.’ That always made me feel really good.” Hateful and Reassuring.
Kimball’s style takes you along in a familiar manner, assuming you’ve read his other books. His simple sentences do a lot of emotional work. Daniel claims, “It was physically exhausting having a dead father.” Each word is so precise, as Daniel appears sympathetic and cold. Kimball also captures complexity by manipulating vowel sounds: “For most of my life, I have been afraid of my father. After he died, I was afraid to be a person without a father, but I also felt relieved he was dead.” After pairing the soft A sounds of “father” and “afraid” twice, “relieved” is emphasized by how sharp the E’s are in contrast.
Kimball’s novel is fascinating for the work it accomplishes in so little space and reminds us that we need not be complicated to express our complexities.
patchworkbunny's review
4.0
Daniel didn’t know his father was dead until a few days after it happened. His death brings mixed feelings; both relief and sadness. Weighing in at over 500 pounds, Big Ray was not an easy man to know. His temper defined Daniel’s childhood and distanced them as adults. As Daniel comes to terms with his loss, he recalls memories and anecdotes of his father, from birth to death.
Big Ray is made up of 500 entries, one for each pound both Daniel’s and Michael Kimball’s fathers weighed. Whilst the structure of short memories and snippets of information works, I found the number a bit tenuous as some of them are really one entry split up. The narrative jumps around very much like a train of thought, mirroring the patterns of memory. When we think of a lost one we don’t do so in a linear fashion. It also deals with the conflicts of grieving someone you may have loved but not liked. Daniel’s relationship with his father was a difficult one but he was still his father.
There is a semi-autobiographical slant to the novel as the author’s father was also obese, adding authenticity to the descriptions of Ray’s weight and the things that became difficult as he grew. There isn’t a sense of why he ate so much, just that he was overbearing both in physical size and personality.
The words “my father” are used a lot throughout the prose, partly creating a sense of detachment but it started to grate on me after a while. Each entry has it at least once and it’s not like there would be any ambiguity to who is being referred to. It’s obviously being used for effect but one that started to get in the way of my enjoyment a little. Otherwise, it’s a powerful, little book.
Big Ray is made up of 500 entries, one for each pound both Daniel’s and Michael Kimball’s fathers weighed. Whilst the structure of short memories and snippets of information works, I found the number a bit tenuous as some of them are really one entry split up. The narrative jumps around very much like a train of thought, mirroring the patterns of memory. When we think of a lost one we don’t do so in a linear fashion. It also deals with the conflicts of grieving someone you may have loved but not liked. Daniel’s relationship with his father was a difficult one but he was still his father.
There is a semi-autobiographical slant to the novel as the author’s father was also obese, adding authenticity to the descriptions of Ray’s weight and the things that became difficult as he grew. There isn’t a sense of why he ate so much, just that he was overbearing both in physical size and personality.
The words “my father” are used a lot throughout the prose, partly creating a sense of detachment but it started to grate on me after a while. Each entry has it at least once and it’s not like there would be any ambiguity to who is being referred to. It’s obviously being used for effect but one that started to get in the way of my enjoyment a little. Otherwise, it’s a powerful, little book.
knowledgelost's review
3.0
A middle aged man is coming to terms with his father’s death and in fact his life. Big Ray is not a nice man; his size and his temper define him. So when he dies, Daniel is mostly relived but it is still the death of his father. “For most of my life I have been afraid of my father. After he died, I was afraid to be a person without a father, but I also felt relieved he was dead. Everything about my father seem complicated like that.”
Big Ray is Daniel’s attempts to recount his father’s life, each paragraph is a single thought that slowly piece together a sense of who Big Ray was; at least in the eyes of his son. This narrative style works really well, you experience the emotions Daniel has and it really drives the story along with the mystery and sometimes randomness of his thoughts.
This is a brutal novel. Daniel ultimately hates his father; from the abuse as a child to trying to understand him as an adult. You can see the pain and hurt come through in the narrative, but there is still a tenderness and sadness at the loss of his father. All relationships are not as they seem; there are the unusual and even unsettling truths of Big Ray but then you have the little glimpses of what might be considered love towards his father.
I read this book in one sitting, not something I normally do. From the very start I was hooked, the narrative style just has nice balance between tenderness and brutality, beauty and mystery. I’m a little concerned for author Michael Kimball because that pain and anger Daniel had towards his father felt way too real. Highly emotional and disturbing; the internal conflict of a dysfunctional and abusive relationship was captured really well in this novel.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/01/18/book-review-big-ray/
Big Ray is Daniel’s attempts to recount his father’s life, each paragraph is a single thought that slowly piece together a sense of who Big Ray was; at least in the eyes of his son. This narrative style works really well, you experience the emotions Daniel has and it really drives the story along with the mystery and sometimes randomness of his thoughts.
This is a brutal novel. Daniel ultimately hates his father; from the abuse as a child to trying to understand him as an adult. You can see the pain and hurt come through in the narrative, but there is still a tenderness and sadness at the loss of his father. All relationships are not as they seem; there are the unusual and even unsettling truths of Big Ray but then you have the little glimpses of what might be considered love towards his father.
I read this book in one sitting, not something I normally do. From the very start I was hooked, the narrative style just has nice balance between tenderness and brutality, beauty and mystery. I’m a little concerned for author Michael Kimball because that pain and anger Daniel had towards his father felt way too real. Highly emotional and disturbing; the internal conflict of a dysfunctional and abusive relationship was captured really well in this novel.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/01/18/book-review-big-ray/
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