Reviews

So Big: A Novel by Edna Ferber

emilinaaaaa's review against another edition

5.0

A deeply effecting rumination on beauty

beccaisareader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

anthofer's review against another edition

2.0

So I feel like this should be known as the novel that beat out The Great Gatsby for the Pulitzer in 1925, and that should let you know, on the eve of the NYT's best books of the last 25 years, that awards and lists are bullshit. This book is bad. It's utterly conventional. According to Wikipedia, in a quote that seems real since it sounds like So Big, Ferber says, in a way that makes me want to read another one of her books, that "Nothing ever really happened in the book. It had no plot at all, as book plots go. It had a theme, but you had to read that for yourself between the lines.' She argued if anything, 'it was a story of the triumph of failure.'"
Ferber's first chapter detailing the life and death of Selina's father and her iterant childhood is electric, but it bogs down so utterly for the next seventy pages that there was no way out for me. Like The Great Gatsby, it seems to be criticizing the Roaring 20's, unlike it, there's a total lack of balance of plot, character, lyrical description, interior monologue, and setting. There's long sections of Selina just talking in her head, or long descriptions of farmers who Ferber never returns to, and then incredibly obvious plot developments.

giovannnaz's review against another edition

4.0

I had thought this book took place in the twenties when I grabbed it off my shelf--but really it's earlier, the late 1800s. Selina, the heroine, has a change in fortune when her father dies, and must leave the rich life for a job teaching in High Prairie (present day Roseland, outside Chicago and next to Pullman) teaching Dutch truck farmer's kids. The story follows her life for the next 30 years or so, as she optimistically perseveres in her new lot in life. Against a backdrop of booming Chicago, and with Selena navigating between her life with the farmers and the rich upper crust city dwellers, the book felt surprisingly current.

danatorrente's review against another edition

5.0

Y'all I am absolutely taken aback by this book. It's been a long time since a classic floored me like this but WOW. I had found this after a friend had shared a list of 11 forgotten books of the 1920's worth reading now and picked this up on a whim because of its 1924 pulitzer win. To hear a feminist voice echo across a century and remain as relavant now is simply stunning. Heroine Selina Peake is every woman who has never been made dull by hard work but polished like rough carbon into a diamond. The perils of the men around her are mere footnotes to her incredible store driven soley by the beauty that exists in the natural radiance of life. Her ability to exist confidently in an ever changing world and throw off the trappings of her simultaneous high class and low class life is inspirational and makes you feel alive even a currently bleak Ameria. You can feel the air of change in early 1900's Chicago as she and traverses in an out of big city life. I can't say enough great things. Run. Go grab a copy of this immediately.

Also fun fact I didnt know, Edna Ferber was the author of the novel made into the hit musical Show Boat. She herself was an all-around badass who when asked why she never married remarked "Being an old maid was a great deal like death by drowning – a really delightful sensation when you ceased struggling."

beyondsolitaire's review against another edition

4.0

This was an absolutely wonderful book. Well written, sweet, and also full of insight into what makes a life well-lived. Lovely.

konkie44's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to. Being a classic, you never know what you are going to get - a great timeless story or a dated, rambling bore. But this book was easy to read and surprisingly modern in its theme (in a nutshell, how our choices in life determine the quality of it). The beginning was a little slow for me but it really picked up after about 30-50 pages. Very readable and lots of great vocabulary thrown in. The only disappointment for me was that the story ended very abruptly. Still a worthwhile, enjoyable read.

moeeyc's review against another edition

4.0

I added this to my TBR list as an author/book I probably needed to read as a valuable piece of American literature. And that was true. I had also recently read Willa Cather for the the first time (O! Pioneers) and thought they may be similar. It really was an excellent book. Deeply descriptive of time, place and the human condition. There is something that appeals to me, perhaps a seed that germinated with The Grapes of Wrath, about man's attempts to tame the land and draw a living from it.

hledvina's review against another edition

5.0

Remarkable! This is an absolutely wonderful book about the life of a woman and subsequently her son, who make different life choices; the mother out of desperation and the son out of prosperity. Edna Ferber was a fixture in Appleton where I lived for many years and now understand the significance of this author and her place in literary history. Wheat and emerald, joy or money, working hands or manicures, life consists of the choices we make and the hearts we touch along the way. Adventure, joy and finding beauty in all things are the themes that will stay with me.

rwellsreads's review against another edition

4.0

There were parts of this book - written 1924, won the Pulitzer Prize the year following- that certainly didn’t age well, but it was a fascinating reflection of a long-gone time and I love a tale of a woman rising above what life throws her way.