A ceaselessly mystical book that should be reread. I read this in 1985 when it arrived from my sister as a gift. It is always rewarding and I am sad I was remiss in not ordering my 25th anniversary edition in time to get a numbered copy. ( )

A dense, rewarding read. Full of fascinating references to myth, history, Shakespeare, architecture,and more. A book to read and savor. The plot tends to meander at times, but the detours are always interesting. The pace is slooow, but again, the writing is so rich, that isn't as frustrating as it could be. It also reminded me very often of my favorite book of all--Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale", which is a much better book than this one! ( )

I have to report that I have no idea what’s going on in Little, Big. Smoky Barnable marries "Daily" Alice Drinkwater in a family that’s strange. Weird house. They might or might not have made deals with faeries. Faeries might or might not exist. Smoky doesn’t seem to know what’s going on either. Part of the story is about his son Auberon, named for a family uncle. Auberon moves to the City for a period and lives in a gutted out city block that’s been turned into a walled farm. That was cool. And then things get weird again and I lost track of the doings.

Full "review" here: http://reading.kingrat.biz/reviews/li... ( )

A magical doorway of a book, whose interior, like the house where much of the novel is set, is larger than its exterior, by which I mean, its rewards and wonders are vast. Approach this book with trust and curiosity -- allow yourself to be seduced by the language, the whimsy and the intelligence. Wander through the chapters as you would a house full of fascinating oddities and intriguing people. A book over which to linger. You will certainly want to keep a copy in your library, since I can think of few other books that so clearly invite a second, or third, reading. ( )

My all-time favorite novel, atmospheric, sad and funny story of a magical family in a house that is many houses. Great love story, too.

An epic story about a family caught at the interface between two worlds - that of man and fairies. Or are they? The book is ambiguous. For much of the novel the reader and the characters are kept guessing about what is actually going on. Are there fairies? Do they mean harm or good? Is there a war, or not? Even after reading the book, I am still not sure what really happened. Like the world of the fairies, the book is ambigous and ephemeral. ( )

If I had to pick only one book to actually *live* in, I think it would be this one. ( )

It's very good...no, maybe it isn't. ( )

This is a really amazing book. It's an entire fantasy novel about the denial of fantasy: about a family who live their lives with fairies, yet can never quite admit to themselves or to those around them that they do. The boundaries between worlds are incredibly permeable: house/forest, city/country, realism/fantasy. Sometimes as a reader you aren't quite sure what's happening, but neither are most of the characters in the book, and they accept that and move on with their fantastical lives. The writing is simple, yet incredibly evocative, and throughout there is a sense of wistfulness.

I can't wait to re-read it - I imagine this is one of those books that will be about something completely different every time I read it. ( )

This was truly a magical read- my oldest daughter fell in love withit also. ( )

Confession time - I picked up this book simply because of the cover. The fantasy genre is not something I read on a regular basis - as a matter of fact, this may the first and only fantasy book I have or will ever read. Having said that, this sublime book is so beautifully written that I often wonder why I don't read more books like this. Then I realized that no other book could possibly capture the essence of what living amongst the fairies in the enchanted woods and the daily lives of those that can see them. Each character is artfully and carefully drawn and the whole story just pulls you in. I recommend this book to anyone who isn't sure they will enjoy something from this genre. I know they will be as pleasantly surprised and captivated as I was. ( )

A beautifully written book. I found myself stopping several times to re-read passages, thinking to myself, "that may be the best sentence I've ever read." ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1042376.ht...

I know this is a heretical view, given that this is such a popular and well-loved book, but I found it terrifically tough going. Some good paragraphs, some nice hints at what is going on behind the scenes, but I had to force myself to finish it. Maybe I am just too old to appreciate it properly. ( )

Richer than cheesecake, full of loves and secrets. In some ways the continuing irresolutions remind me of Messaien's organ music. When I finished the book I immediately started rereading - it seems much more manageable the second time, but I'm still puzzling over lots of its mysteries.

I started this, but absolutely not my thing. The writing would seem to be ok, but at several hundred pages of what was going on here, no thanks. This particular Fantasy Masterworks edition had the incredibly annoying and twee indentations of different scenes time after time. That destroys any reading flow, at all.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/02/little-big-john-crowley.html ( )

I started this, but absolutely not my thing. The writing would seem to be ok, but at several hundred pages of what was going on here, no thanks. This particular Fantasy Masterworks edition had the incredibly annoying and twee indentations of different scenes time after time. That destroys any reading flow, at all.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/02/little-big-john-crowley.html ( )

One of the most beautiful, strange and entrancing books that I have ever read. Highly recommended ( )

This is one of the most astonishing, strange, and beautifully-written novels I've ever read.

It is an urban fantasy about a family's ancestral associations with the world of faerie, and how their ongoing negotiations with the inhabitants of this world play out. But faerie and its inhabitants are experienced by the reader in way that I can only describe as "slippery" -- we get brief and insubstantial glimpses of something odd going on, but as soon we suspect something, its gone. Crowley achieves this primarily through the use of highly ornate language throughout the novel to describe very mundane and simple events, and this masks the supernatural aspects of the narrative at first when they appear. The writing is SO effective in conveying these fleeting half-glances of the otherworldly forces (one gradually comes to understand they are driving the events of the story), I often found myself pausing to wonder if I had just read what I thought I had read. Then I would go back, reread, and see it was ambigious all along. And this, I realized, is precisely the state Crowley wants the reader to be in: a creeping uncertainty that things are not what they seem, and that secret events are transpiring just beyond one's awareness.

On the surface are several love stories about endearing characters in an unusual family. But the book is long and complicated, with a huge cast and a meandering storyline that jumps back and forth in time to different generations. It seems unfocused at first, but builds gradually to the point where one can at least infer coherence, even if it is never explicitly stated.
This is not a book to race through -- to grasp what's really happening behind the dream-like imagery, and the quirky settings and characters takes some patience and some thought. It's also a book that, I expect, will greatly reward a second or third read. One of the few books I can honestly say is not like anything else i've read. ( )

There are only a few novels that I found myself wishing would never end. This was one of them.

One of my most favorite novels. Perfect and decisively strange. With so many hidden bits and questions left unanswered it is definitely a book meant to be re-read. A masterpiece. ( )

I found this book frustrating. It is well written, but the story is so full of hesitancies and allusions that I wasn't sure what I was reading it for.

Little, Big is my favorite book and deserves to be counted as one of the greatest novels ever written. I recognize that Little, Big isn't everyone's cup of ... "twee," was it? And I know the resolution of the novel seem complex and obscure to many readers. I confess that it took me multiple readings to fully absorb what was occurring in the final 200 pages. But to my mind, the book is a masterpiece of both form and substance.

Crowley's words paint pictures so vivid they stun you with their clarity and beauty. From the simple:

"The screen door was old and large, its wood pierced and turned a bit to summery effect, and the screen potbellied below from years of children's thoughtless egress . . ."

To the sublime:

"While the moon smoothly shifted the shadows from one side of Edgewood to the other, Daily Alice dreamed that she stood in a flower-starred field where on a hill there grew an oak tree and a thorn in deep embrace, their branches intertwined like fingers. Far down the hall, Sophie dreamed that there was a tiny door in her elbow, open a crack, through which the wind blew, blowing on her heart. Dr. Drinkwater dreamed he sat before his typewriter and wrote this: 'There is an aged, aged insect who lives in a hole in the ground. One June he puts on his summer straw, and takes his pipe and his staff and his lamp in half his hands, and follows the worm and the root to the stair that leads up to the door into blue summer.' This seemed immensely significant to him, but when he awoke he wouldn't be able to remember a word of it, try as he might. Mother beside him dreamed her husband wasn't in his study at all, but with her in the kitchen, where she drew tin cookie-sheets endlessly out of the oven; the baked things on them were brown and round, and when he asked her what they were, she said 'Years.'"

As to the story itself, Little, Big should be taken as two novels which, like Aunt Cloud's deck of cards, have been shuffled together into one great whole. On one level, the book is a fantasy novel about magical worlds known only to the Drinkwaters (or at least most of them) and their kin. On an equally important level, it is one of the most beautiful love stories ever told. The novel is suffused with joy and pain, all in the service of devotion and love.

I could write pages and pages about the characters and how magical and heroic they would seem to me, even if the book itself were stripped of its fantasy elements. Which is not to say that those elements are anything but astonishingly beautiful.

I know that not every book can appeal to every reader. But I think that Little, Big is one of those books that is so special, it will reward almost anyone who gives it a fair chance. ( )

I feel like I missed out on this one because of all the fantastic reviews I'd read of it before I began. This isn't just fantasy. It's a huge, all-encompassing tome of a book with so many different sub-plots and themes working alongside one another that you really need to devote time and energy to it.

Having read it just the once, I can say that I liked it and I see the potential for it becoming even more intriguing after a couple of re-reads. One to keep coming back to. ( )

People who dislike this book presumably don't realize how much is actually going on in it. This is pretty much the most ambitious novel ever written, in the sense that it seeks to explain religion, history, memory, family, art, consciousness, dreams, love, death and life--and pretty much does. It's "literature", in the sense of being written to be reread and contemplated over a lifetime, and it's great literature because it rewards such attentive reading.

I love it unreservedly. The page layout of the mass market (i.e. small) Bantam paperbacks is much more attractive than that of the other editions, though their covers are among the worst. Has anyone ever had such cover--and publishing--woes as John Crowley? ( )

One of those great books that you can read again and again and always find something new or some new twist-- like a symphony. I especially love the fact that it defies genres-- or even the label "genre fiction" itself. Masterful and my favorite book of all time-- and destined, I'm sure,to stay at least one of my favorites. ( )