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Note: Makini Howell will talk about her journey and new book at Powell's City of Books on April 27 at 4 p.m. Grains, grains, grains. I have fallen... Continue »
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    Makini Howell 9781570617911
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So Big

by

So Big Cover

ISBN13: 9780060956691
ISBN10: 0060956690
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 2 left in stock at $7.50!

 

Awards

Winner of the 1925 Pulitzer Prize
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Winner of the 1925 Pulitzer Prize, So Big is widely regarded as Ferber's piece de resistance.

This rollicking panorama of high and low life in the Windy City follows the travails of gambler's daughter Selina Peake DeJong as she struggles to maintain her dignity, her family and her sanity in the face of monumental challenges. Literary Review pronounced it "a masterpiece....It has the completeness, (the) finality, that grips and exalt and convinces"; the New York Times called it "a novel to read and to remember".

Review:

"A masterpiece...It has the completeness, [the] finality, that grips and exalts and convinces." Literary Review)

Synopsis:

Winner of the 1924 Pulitzer Prize, So Big is widely regarded as Edna Ferber's crowning achievement. A rollicking panorama of Chicago's high and low life, this stunning novel follows the travails of gambler's daughter Selina Peake DeJong as she struggles to maintain her dignity, her family, and her sanity in the face of monumental challenges.
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About the Author

A best-selling writer from Chicago, Edna Ferber had great popular appeal throughout the world. She published nine plays, two autobiographies, eleven short story collections, and thirteen novels, including Showboat, Giant, and So Big — winner of the Pulitzer Prize — the unforgettable story of Selina Peake Dejong, her marriage, widowhood, eventual success as a truck farmer, and of her son, Dirk. In So Big, Ferber simultaneously created a vivid picture of turn-of-the-century Chicago and dealt with the (still) contemporary issues of poverty, Americanization, family tensions, sexism, and success.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
ann_locates, June 5, 2009 (view all comments by ann_locates)
All we need is a president elected from Illinois area
to revive this book about a Mother's ambition for her son. Does anyone see Blagovitch and Obama's senate
seat sale here?

Was it love that prompted Selina to strive to ever advance her son, Sobig DeJong, from a truck farmer to a splendid office on LaSalle street? A Mother's story
from a story teller who told it like it was. This book is about a real Chicago house.
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amabre, June 2, 2009 (view all comments by amabre)
In the three years I've worked in a bookstore, I've had ZERO customers ask for books by Edna Ferber.
Dude. That is going to change. I am going to start by recommending it to everyone I know (mother-in-law is reading it next, then Andrew) and then I am going to recommend it to customers.

It's about Selina DeJong, a gambler's daughter-turned schoolteacher in a Dutch village just outside of Chicago. It is definetely interesting to think that there was so much farmland in Selina's day, where now it's all steel and traffic. Selina is an intriguing character, she's smart, young (well...the novel spand a few decades), idealistic and determined. She falls in love and becomes someone she never thought she'd be. She has a son who she works very, VERY hard for. Their lives happen and I couldn't pull myself away.

A page turner indeed, this book wasn't thought to be very literary when it was published in 1924 (although it won the Pulitzer Prize)but the language is rich and the story is wholly interesting. Now I want to see the movie-any one of the three that were adapted from this lovely novel.

Do read it.
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emba254, November 11, 2006 (view all comments by emba254)
I really enjoyed this book. Ferber was great at writing about the different classes of people and how they interacted together. Imagery in her writing was great as well. I plan on reading some more of her work since i enjoyed this one so much.

Emily Fogleman
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780060956691
Author:
Ferber, Edna
Publisher:
Harper Perennial
Author:
by Edna Ferber
Location:
New York :
Subject:
Historical
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Family
Subject:
Historical - General
Subject:
Westerns
Subject:
Chicago
Subject:
Historical fiction
Subject:
Widows
Subject:
Illinois
Subject:
Pulitzer Prize
Subject:
Westerns - General
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
2000
Edition Description:
Trade PB
Series:
Perennial Classics
Series Volume:
979
Publication Date:
20000831
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
272
Dimensions:
7.96x5.27x.62 in. .51 lbs.
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Related Subjects

Featured Titles » Pulitzer Prize Winners
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Westerns » General
History and Social Science » American Studies » Popular Culture

So Big Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$7.50 In Stock
Product details 272 pages HarperCollins Publishers - English 9780060956691 Reviews:
"Review" by , "A masterpiece...It has the completeness, [the] finality, that grips and exalts and convinces." Literary Review)
"Synopsis" by , Winner of the 1924 Pulitzer Prize, So Big is widely regarded as Edna Ferber's crowning achievement. A rollicking panorama of Chicago's high and low life, this stunning novel follows the travails of gambler's daughter Selina Peake DeJong as she struggles to maintain her dignity, her family, and her sanity in the face of monumental challenges.
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