"People mess things up, forget and remember all the wrong things. What's left is fiction."
~Daniel Wallace
Sometimes we exaggerate. Perhaps intentionally, perhaps not. Usually it's to make a story or event sound more interesting. "When I was your age, we had to walk back and forth to school. Ten miles. In two feet of snow. Without boots. And it was uphill both ways!" (OK, I grew up in Buffalo, NY, so in my case at least the snow was real).
Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace tells the story of William Bloom, a man who is trying to deal with his feelings about Edward, his dying father. Tales of his father from when William was a child seem more legend than truth. But all Edward Wallace wanted was a life out of the ordinary. The stories he told William were not lies, exactly, but more the truth as he wanted it to be. Big Fish is both heartwarming and a little sad; it's filled with magic and mystery, and shows that everyone is important, in their own way.
If you like films, check out the movie of Big Fish, starring Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Ewan McGregor.
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