Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions

William begins to retellthe story of Edward's life, as it's been passed down to him from his father. Edward is born in Alabama during the "driest summer in forty years" (5). The drought kills off all the crops and animals. One man takes to eating rocks, which kills him. He ends up weighing so much that ten men must carry him to his grave, and ten more men have to dig his grave because the ground is so dry.

On the day he is born, Edward's mother cooks the family's last egg for his father's breakfast. His father is out plowing their dusty field, churning up the roots of "some mysterious vegetable" (6). It's so dry that he wrings the sweat out of his bandana out into a tin cup, to drink later.

Inside the house, Edward's mother's heart stops and she has an out-of-body experience just before Edward is born. She has a vision of her future son, glowing, and comes back into her body. A single stormy-looking cloud forms in the sky, and everyone in town besides his mother, stands looking up at it. Screaming for her husband, Edward's mother gives birth to him by herself, just as the cloud releases its rain.

When Edward is a boy, he has "a way with animals" (8). This includes raccoons, which ate out of his hand; a bearthat slept outside his childhood bedroom; cows and horses; and a chicken that laid an egg in his lap. People in the town hadn't "seen anything like it," (8) and assume that he can somehow talk to the animals.

When Edward is nine, it snows for the first time ever in Alabama. Edward and his father, to whom he is respectful and obedient, build snowmen together. It's said that Edward's snowman is "a full sixteen feet tall" (9). He builds a pulley device from pine branches to move up and down it, using wagon wheels for its eyes, the top of a grain silo for its nose, and oak bark for its mouth.

Back at their house, Edward's father tries to keep a path cleared to the front door. A snowdrift falls through the roof in his parent's bedroom, so the family packs up food and blankets and decides to sleep outside, in the treetops. In the morning, the temperature rises, and Edward walks six miles to school. He passes by "a man frozen in a block of ice" (11) on his way. When he reaches the school, which is buried up to the weathervane, he realizes he's forgotten his homework. He turns around and heads home to get it, then goes back to school.

Edward has a great memory for names, faces, and preferences. By age twelve, he can recognize anyone in town based solely on the sound of their footfalls. At this time, he grows so quickly that his bones can't keep up with his height, and he has to stay in bed. He reads thousands of books, including the telephone book, while he's on bedrest.

Switching to the present tense, William imagines one way that his father's last day alive could unfold. Dr. Bennett, the Bloom family's doctor, comes out of the guest room and closes the door behind him. He is old enough that he delivered William and is now helping Edward on his death bed. Dr. Bennett tells William, "[t]here's nothing I can do" (13), and then instructs him to go make peace with his father.

William's mother is drained from caring for Edward, and William feels like his father came home not just to die, but to dig his own grave in their backyard. His mother says she'll go into say goodbye first, and that she'll call for William if it seems like he's going to die right then. William wonders why his father is going to die before Dr. Bennett.

Edward has been sick for years with a progressive illness of some kind. This frustrates him because it means he must stay home. Before getting sick, he was always on the go, using "home as a refueling station" (15). He was gainfully self-employed, but always seemed to be "in a state of constant aspiration" (15). He would return home from weeks-long trips with a "fabulous story" (16).

William remembers one story Edward told about a two-headed Japanese woman, "a geisha, in fact" (16), who served him tea during a business meeting. He "drank a bit" (17) when he was home and would sink into a weariness within a few days of being home. When he first becomes bedridden, he makes many long-distance calls to people "all around the world" (17), but soon is too sick to do even that.

William brings his father a glass of water and reflects that it's hard to see Edward like this, with scabby skin and no hair. In good spirits, Edward tells William about how he used to give a quarter to the panhandler outside of his office every day. He says that he was out sick for a few weeks, and when he got back to work, the panhandler said he owed him three-fifty. Neither of them laughsnor smiles.

Looking around the room, Edward says that it's appropriate for him to use the guest room in which to die. He explains that he'd hate to die in the bed next to William's mother. He acknowledges that he "wasn't there" (19) for William when he was a kid. William agrees. Edward talks about his own father, a farmer who hopped a freight train to go get a "special kind of seed" (19), but didn't get back to Alabama until after planting time. William guesses that his grandfather planted the seeds and they grew to the "top of the clouds" where "a giant lived" (20), alongside "a two-headed woman who served him tea" (20). Edward says that remembering a man's stories is what "makes him immortal" (20).

Edward tells William that he tried to be home more but faced "natural disasters" (20) that kept him away. The problem was, Edward says, that he "wanted to be a great man" (21). William reacts with mock surprise. Edward talks about growing his business from a failed candle-making operation to a booming import/export business that took him to all seven continents. He asks William if he knows what makes a man great. William takes his time thinking, then replies that a man who is loved by his son "could be considered great" (22). This bewilders Edward for a moment and he becomes "slightly woozy" (22). William calms him by dubbing him "my father, Edward Bloom, a Very Great Man" (22), and mocking the motion of knighting his father. Edward starts to fall asleep thenbegins to murmur about the two-headed woman. William says he already knows about the two-headed woman. Edward replies that he was going to tell him about "her sister" (23), and asks William if he thinks he would kid him "about something like that" (23).

Back in another story from Edward's youth, he is resting under an oak tree on the shore of Blue River, when he rouses to see a beautiful young woman bathing in the river. He's never seen a woman naked before. Afraid she will see him, he stays perfectly still, watching her. However, he spots a cottonmouth—a deadly snake—swimming towards here in the water. He catches the snake just as it's about to strike her and wraps it in his shirt because he doesn't "believe in killing" (25). The woman says that Edward saved her life, calls him brave, and says that from now on, this spot should be called "Edward's Grove" (26), in his honor. She asks him to turn around, so she can get out and get dressed. He gives her five minutes, and when he turns around, she's gone. When he unwraps his shirt, he finds not a snake, but a "small brown stick" (27).

Edward has a "quiet charm" and, though shy, is considered handsome and attractive to women. Growing up in Ashland, he often spent evenings alone with a young woman, on his porch swing, making the woman laugh for all the town to hear.

A giant named Karl arrives in Ashland after being abandoned by his mother, exhausted from fourteen years of caring for her rapidly-growing and insatiably-hungry son. He hides out in the nearby mountains, the only appropriate home for his size, and comes into Ashland at night to ravage the crops and water tower. Eventually, he takes six dogs for his meal.

Edward takes it upon himself to confront Karl. He heads for the mountains and finds Karl's home in a cave, where Edward once rescued a young girl. Karl emerges from the cave. He's a ghastly sight, with bruises and scrapes from hunting, and a “tangled beard" covered in food and bugs. Edward asks him to stop coming into Ashland to steal food. Karl dismisses his request, saying that he could easily eat him at once. Edward explains that he's come to offer himself as the "first sacrifice" (32).

Karl softens and begins to cry. He tells Edward that he doesn't want to eat anyone. He's so incredibly hungry, and he misses his mother's cooking. He apologizes for taking the dogs. Edward says that the people of Ashland could teach him how to farm and cook. Karl agrees, and this is what happens.

This incident earns Edward a reputation for being able to "charm anyone, just by walking through the room" (33). He disagrees, though, insisting that he is just a people-person.

A flood surrounds the lands around Ashland, but the town itself is mostly spared by its surrounding mountains. One part of the town, though, succumbs to the floods. The water submerges houses and land underneath what Ashlanders call "Big Lake" (34). Legend has it that catfish "as big as a man" (34) swim in the lake, and Edward decides to try to catch one for himself.

He sets out at dawn, navigating his boat to the deepest part of the lake. Using dead mice as bait, he catches a catfish so huge that it pulls him out of the boat and into the water. At the bottom of the lake, he sees the part of town that got flooded, along with all the people who once lived there. They go about their business as though they're on dry land, and one of them, a man named Homer, even waves to Edward. At that moment, the fish jerks him out of the water and onto the shore. He decides not to tell anyone about his adventure, instead explaining that he lost his pole and boat when they drifted away into Big Lake as he napped on the shore.

Soon after graduating high school, Edward tells his parents that it's time he left his dreamlike life in Ashland. They are concerned, knowing there is only one road out of the town, and that it leads through "the place that had no name" (37). They know, too, that only people who are "meant to leave Ashland' (37) can get through that place, and that those who aren't are doomed to stay there forever. His parents say goodbye to him just the same, knowing they may not see him again.

The sun shines brightly on the day Edward leaves, but turns gloomy and dark as he enters the unnamed town. The town looks similar to Ashland, but the storefronts are dusty and abandoned-looking. The owners smile at Edward as he passes. Residents of the town come out to greet him, asking if he's leaving Ashland. They are "normal," but all have "that one thing, that one terrible thing" (39) about themselves that keeps them from being considered 'normal.' He encounters a man with an arm disfigured by a past accident, a woman whose face and speech have been affected by a stroke, and a hydrocephalic young man whose mother was forced into becoming the town's only prostitute.

He also meets an old man named Willie, who offers to give Edward a tour of the town. Edward obliges, but tells him he's just passing through. It begins to rain and Edward remarks that everything seems "sort of…damp" (41). Willie replies that Edward will "get used to it" (42), but Edward says he doesn't want to get used to that, or anything else about the place. They continue, through the foggy "dusklike morning" (42). Edward recognizes a man on the streets as Norther Winslow, a poet who had left Ashland for Paris a few years earlier. He is gaunt and pale and has lost two of his fingers. Edward reflects that Ashland had "put a lot of hope in Norther" (42). Willie tells him that a lot of "normal people" (42) come into town with their plans, and that the dampness around them is the "residue" (42) of their unrealized dreams.

A generic-looking dog begins to approach the two men on the street. Willie tells Edward to call it towards him. The dog has no name, and responds to 'Dog.' Edward calls it over, but Dog bristles and begins growling at him. Willie tells Edward to extend his hand to Dog, so he can smell it. Edward at first resists, but does, and Dog stops snarling and licks Edward's hand and wags his tail. Edward asks if he can leave now, but Willie says that he has to have a cup of coffee first. He drags him towards a café.

Over coffee in the dingy café, Willie says Edward isn't the first "big fish" (45) they've seen come through town from Ashland. He tells him about Jimmy Edwards, a high school football star who wanted to make it big as a businessman in the city. Dog bit off his "left index finger" (45). Edward looks over to see Jimmy at a table, hiding his left hand in his pocket. He realizes that everyone in the café is missing at least one finger; some have only a few left. Willie explains that some of them have tried more than once to leave.

The people in the café all get up from their seats and begin to crowd around Edward and Willie's booth. Edward recognizes some of them from Ashland. They bar him from leaving the booth. A man older than Willie tells Edward that he shouldn't trust Dog, and asks him to tell them all about "the bright world" (47) that awaits him beyond the town. They all close their eyes as Edward talks about his plans. Afterwards, they ask him if he'll do it again tomorrow. He tells them that "there's been a misunderstanding," (47) and that he's not there to stay.

Just then, Dog charges the crowd. Edward leaps up and passes through the parted crowd, running out onto the main street. He runs without looking back until the scenery turns "green and wonderful" (48). Dog has run beside him, but once they reach a "huge green lake" (48), Dog collapses, "as if emptied of all strength" (49). He sits down beside the with Dog, petting him, as the sun sets and the moon rises. From the middle of the lake, Edward sees a woman emerge. She smiles and waves at him, and he waves at her, saying first "Hello!" (49), and then "Good-bye!" (49).

Jasper "Buddy" Barron, Edward's friend and eventual vice president of his company, narrates Edward's first day outside of Ashland. He says that Edward had nothing but "the clothes on his back and the holes in his shoes," (51) and the ten or so dollars his mother had given him. He also has "his dreams" (51), which, according to Buddy, are what "keep a man going" (51).

After walking thirty miles, Edward sleeps outside on "a bed of pine straw" (51). Two "men-of-the-woods" (51) come upon him, and beat and rob him. Buddy claims that Edward once told him that if he ever saw those men again, he would thank them for determining "the course of the rest of his life" (52). After the assault, Edward gathers his strength and limps down the road until he comes across "an old country store" (52), where an old man sits in a rocking chair. The old man calls for his wife and daughter, and they emerge with hot water, a washcloth, and bandages they tore from a sheet, ready and "determined" (52) to save Edward's life.

Buddy says that Edward couldn't accept their help, however. His "integrity" (52) wouldn't allow him to do so. If he did, he would forever feel his life was "inextricably bound" (52) to those who had saved him. So, he sweeps, mops, and scours the store, cleaning up his blood stains as he goes, until he collapses. The mother, fearing he has died, scoops him into her arms and begins praying for his life to be spared. He rouses from his exhaustion to utter the word, "Advertise" (53).

Edward recovers and stays with this family, the Jimsons, for almost a year, helping with plowing, gardening, and running the store. He devises some advertising campaigns, including inventing the slogan "buy one, get one free" (54), all of which transform the store into a booming business.