Little, Big / John Crowley

On her blog, author Nisi Shawl recommended John Crowley’s work several times in the last few months. It just so happens that I picked up a copy of Little, Big at last spring’s Friends of the Seattle Public Library book sale. When I saw that Crowley would be doing a reading at the Richard Hugo House in September, I decided to give him a whirl.

However, 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. But then his girlfriend Silvie disappears and Auberon becomes a drunk in response. And then things get weird again and I lost track of the doings.

538 pages of stuff that went over my head. I actually read the whole thing though. But I can’t recommend it or disrecommend it.

Instead, what I will do with this review is provide you with a list of all the words I had to look up. Crowley likes to use $10 words. I’m smart. I have a large vocabulary. Not smart enough though. I haven’t read a work of fiction in decades that made me look up so much.

1. amanuensis: one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript
2. orrery: apparatus showing the relative positions and motions of bodies in the solar system by balls moved by a clockwork
3. plangent: having a loud reverberating sound
4. orgulous: proud
5. deshabille: the state of being dressed in a casual or careless style
6. marmoreal: of, relating to, or suggestive of marble or a marble statue especially in coldness or aloofness
7. ormolu: golden or gilded brass or bronze used for decorative purposes (as in mounts for furniture)
8. vocable: a word composed of various sounds or letters without regard to its meaning
9. casques: a piece of armor for the head : helmet
10. étagère: a piece of furniture consisting of a set of open shelves for displaying small objects
11. encomium: glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise; also : an expression of this
12. demesne:
    1. legal possession of land as one’s own
    2. manorial land actually possessed by the lord and not held by tenants
    3. the land attached to a mansion : landed property : estate : region : territory
    4. realm : domain
13. bosky: having abundant trees or shrubs : of or relating to a woods
14. pard: leopard
15. oubliette: a dungeon with an opening only at the top
16. aestivate: to pass the summer in a state of torpor
17. effulgent: radiant splendor : brilliance
18. threnody (used threnodic) : a song of lamentation for the dead : elegy
19. cerement: a shroud for the dead; especially : cerecloth
20. wimple:
    1. a cloth covering worn over the head and around the neck and chin especially by women in the late medieval period and by some nuns
    2. Scottish : a crafty turn : twist : curve : bend
21. phthisis (used phthisical): a progressively wasting or consumptive condition; especially : pulmonary tuberculosis
22. homburg: a man’s felt hat with a stiff curled brim and a high crown creased lengthwise
23. mullion (used mullioned): a slender vertical member that forms a division between units of a window, door, or screen or is used decoratively
24. borborygmus (used borborygmic): A rumbling noise produced by the movement of gas through the intestines.
25. rachitic : rickety
26. rimson — couldn’t find a definition with a quick search
27. homunculous : a little man : manikin
28. percipience: perception
29. byre : a cow barn
30. fundibular — couldn’t find a definition with a quick search
31. bole: trunk
32. laved : wash, bathe
33. atomy : a tiny particle : atom, mite

Perhaps one of these blogged reviews can help you make more sense of the book than I.

• Things Mean a Lot
• Too Fond of Books
• Yet There Are Statues

Title: Little, Big
Author: John Crowley
Cover creator: Eric Fuentecilla (designer) / Ludovic Moulin and Lorraine Molina (photographers)
Imprint / publisher: Perennial / HarperCollins
Format: Paperback
Length: 538 p.
Publication date: 2002 (originally 1981 by Bantam)
ISBN-10: 0-06-093793-9
LC classification: PS3553.R597 L5 2002