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bibliobethica's review against another edition
4.0
Devil in the White City meets The Great Gatsby in the 1950s. Big Bang was mostly entertaining with the many references to famous people, places, poems, novels, and historic events, but at times I felt lost and had no idea where Bowman was going. An incredibly well researched novel that is creative and expanded much farther into anything most humans can imagine. It's amazing, but long and circular.
andriella's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
hannahsonia's review
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
sophies_little_library's review
4.0
'When Pollock was at his most masterful, he painted the way Balanchine danced. Pollock arced his body. Pollock flung paint from wooden sticks. Pollock understood gravity and paint, and adjusted his wrist from the floor accordingly as he circled the canvas flinging paint. Splattering. Dribbling.'
This is a hugely ambitious 'nonfiction novel' that sprawls across the 1950s to the climactic death of Kennedy - an event, Bowman teases, which may not have been all it seemed. Bowman follows a dizzying array of characters through short vignettes: we grab them for a few paragraphs, let them go, and then pick them up chapters later, weaving in and out of each others' lives. Accompanying heavy hitters like Kennedy, Elvis, and Monroe, Bowman digs into musicians, authors, and politicians. One section is even told from the perspective of Kennedy's three-year-old daughter.
The real strength of this book is how Bowman obscures the boundaries between fact and fiction, including footnotes and the occasional authorial interruption to maintain the illusion that this is a documentary, while putting words into characters' mouths which they could never have spoken.
Instead of following a single life, 'Big Bang' evokes an era; this is the strength of the book, but also makes it hard to dig into any one character. At times, the volume of people makes their voices blend together, and by the end, I found the changing array of characters a little tiring. However, this is still an extraordinarily researched and darkly comic portrait of a lost era.
This is a hugely ambitious 'nonfiction novel' that sprawls across the 1950s to the climactic death of Kennedy - an event, Bowman teases, which may not have been all it seemed. Bowman follows a dizzying array of characters through short vignettes: we grab them for a few paragraphs, let them go, and then pick them up chapters later, weaving in and out of each others' lives. Accompanying heavy hitters like Kennedy, Elvis, and Monroe, Bowman digs into musicians, authors, and politicians. One section is even told from the perspective of Kennedy's three-year-old daughter.
The real strength of this book is how Bowman obscures the boundaries between fact and fiction, including footnotes and the occasional authorial interruption to maintain the illusion that this is a documentary, while putting words into characters' mouths which they could never have spoken.
Instead of following a single life, 'Big Bang' evokes an era; this is the strength of the book, but also makes it hard to dig into any one character. At times, the volume of people makes their voices blend together, and by the end, I found the changing array of characters a little tiring. However, this is still an extraordinarily researched and darkly comic portrait of a lost era.
mccordian's review against another edition
5.0
This is a Kennedy assassination saga that avoids most of the stench of conspiracy and/or what's been grade-school-history-booked into our basic-fact-singed brains. A compendium comical, emotional, and liberally fictional, like the Ford Theater tale without all that Booth-talk. A sweet digestif to follow DeLillo's 'Libra'.
palefire's review
5.0
Lethem's introduction is excellent, but you should probably read AFTER you read this fractured novel which is the grandson of dos Passos' Manhattan Transfer and U.S.A., and John Brunner's Stand On Zanzibar. This appears to be a 'novel' full of 'facts' which are surely creative speculations. Great fun for me since I'm old enough to remember these years. So very many characters (see below) who swirl around in the lead up to the titled Big Bang as JFK gorily bites the dust. The 600 pages of crisp dialogues, plots and descriptions entertained me more than I thought possible. An easy five stars rating.
(Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Lee, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Dr. Benjamin Spock and his wife, Jane, George Plimpton, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Leslie Fiedler, J. D. Salinger, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, Elizabeth Taylor, Raymond Chandler, Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Frank Sinatra, Maria Callas, Ann Margret, Elvis, William de Kooning, Ngô Dihn Diem, Aristotle Onassis, John F., Jacqueline, Robert, & Joe Kennedy, William S. Burroughs, Robert McNamarat, Lee Harvey Oswald, James Tippit, LBJ and Lady Bird, Montgomery Cliff, Clark Gable, John Huston, Eli Wallach, Krushchev, Richard and Pat Nixon, Ernest Hemingway, H.L. Hunt, E. Howard Hunt and many more.)
(Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Lee, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Dr. Benjamin Spock and his wife, Jane, George Plimpton, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Leslie Fiedler, J. D. Salinger, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, Elizabeth Taylor, Raymond Chandler, Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Frank Sinatra, Maria Callas, Ann Margret, Elvis, William de Kooning, Ngô Dihn Diem, Aristotle Onassis, John F., Jacqueline, Robert, & Joe Kennedy, William S. Burroughs, Robert McNamarat, Lee Harvey Oswald, James Tippit, LBJ and Lady Bird, Montgomery Cliff, Clark Gable, John Huston, Eli Wallach, Krushchev, Richard and Pat Nixon, Ernest Hemingway, H.L. Hunt, E. Howard Hunt and many more.)
cody240fc's review
5.0
This one is a lot of fun. Bowman's 'Big Bang' covers the years 1950 all the way through the Kennedy assassination in 1963. A novel that fits the mold of non-fiction novelists such as Mailer, Delillo and Capote, 'Big Bang' incorporates the lives of dozens of celebrities, politicians, artists and businessmen. It is an impressively large narrative, but the real life celebrity of the characters makes it easy to follow.
The characters and events that take place in 'Big Bang' are so absurd that I constantly found myself pausing to fact check Bowman's story. It is shockingly accurate. Granted, this is a novel, so Bowman takes liberties with dialogue, but 'Big Bang' gives us a glimpse of life before the rise of social media and 24 hour newscasts; when the rich and famous could misbehave as they pleased and not worry about public scrutiny. Fair warning however: you might never want to read another sentence from Mailer or Burroughs after reading this.
The final chapters are dedicated to the coup of South Vietnam in 1961 and, of course, the Kennedy assassination in '63 (the ultimate 'big bang'). Again, the events covered here are historically accurate for the most part, and it makes for a harrowing read. The fact that 'Big Bang' honors historical accuracy makes it a heavier, and frankly, a better read than other novels such as Delillo's 'Libra' (which I am a huge fan of as well).
I am surprised by the muted response for this novel here on goodreads. If you are a fan of Delillo's work then you will love this one too. Well deserving of 5 stars.
The characters and events that take place in 'Big Bang' are so absurd that I constantly found myself pausing to fact check Bowman's story. It is shockingly accurate. Granted, this is a novel, so Bowman takes liberties with dialogue, but 'Big Bang' gives us a glimpse of life before the rise of social media and 24 hour newscasts; when the rich and famous could misbehave as they pleased and not worry about public scrutiny. Fair warning however: you might never want to read another sentence from Mailer or Burroughs after reading this.
The final chapters are dedicated to the coup of South Vietnam in 1961 and, of course, the Kennedy assassination in '63 (the ultimate 'big bang'). Again, the events covered here are historically accurate for the most part, and it makes for a harrowing read. The fact that 'Big Bang' honors historical accuracy makes it a heavier, and frankly, a better read than other novels such as Delillo's 'Libra' (which I am a huge fan of as well).
I am surprised by the muted response for this novel here on goodreads. If you are a fan of Delillo's work then you will love this one too. Well deserving of 5 stars.
barrynorton's review
5.0
Incredible narrative built out of William Burroughs, Jimi Hendrix, JFK and Marilyn Monroe, etc.
Long but rewarding.
Long but rewarding.
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