Synopses & Reviews
Big Ray's temper and obesity define him. When Big Ray dies, his son feels mostly relief, dismissing his other emotions. Yet years later, the adult son must reckon with the outsized presence of his father's memory. This stunning novel, narrated in more than five hundred brief entries, moves between past and present, between his father's death and his life, between an abusive childhood and an adult understanding. Shot through with humor and insight that will resonate with anyone who has experienced a complicated parental relationship, Big Ray is a staggering family story — at once brutal and tender, sickening and beautiful.
Review
"In this tender, gorgeous novel, Michael Kimball explores how we try to understand even the most difficult family members." Oprah.com Book of the Week
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"Michael Kimball has been writing innovative, compelling and beautifully felt books for years, but Big Ray seems a break-through and culmination all at once. It's funny and terrifying and it's his masterpiece, at least so far." Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask
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"An uncompromising work of power and grace. I finished reading it a week ago, but I still can't put it down." Jon McGregor, author of This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You
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"Big Ray, the man, made an indelible human impression on me. Big Ray, Michael Kimball's terrific new novel, is genuinely moving because it is so rigorously unsentimental. Kimball is a powerful and courageous writer." Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia and Eat the Document
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"Elegy, meditation, story, final reckoning — whatever you want to call it, Big Ray is mesmerizing. Sorrowful and honest, the kind of book that compels, not compromises." Deb Olin Unferth, author of Revolution
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"Big Ray is disturbing in the most extraordinary ways, and in the end extraordinarily touching also. There's nothing quite like it Ive ever read till now (though there were times I thought the ghost of Barry Hannah was whispering in my ear.) Its amazing." Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls Rising
About the Author
Michael Kimball is the author of The Way the Family Got Away, Dear Everybody, and, most recently, Us, and his novels have been translated into a dozen languages. His work has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in the Guardian, Vice, Bomb, and New York Tyrant. He is also responsible for the project Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard) and a couple of documentary films. He lives in Baltimore. Visit his website at michael-kimball.com.