Rating: 
Summary: Well-written but over-rated masterpiece
Review: ...to Crowley and his fans (both in general) ((I am one)) (and fans of LITTLE, BIG in particular)--I have to confess I found LITTLE, BIG a grave disappointment, both in comparison with Crowley's other novels and in comparison with the masterworks on which Crowley has modeled his tale.The two most obvious influences--both cued in the text--are Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald. But LITTLE, BIG lacks the brevity, surrealism (by turns delightful and threatening), and wit that characterize the best of both these men's work. As the pages kept turning, I longed for some of that wit, or for the sort of sudden, shockingly vivid passages (MacDonald's forte) that would transcend the stifling Victoriana of Edgewood. Rather than MacDonald's COLLECTED FAIRY TALES, or even PHANTASTES OR LILITH--much less Carroll's farces--LITTLE, BIG compares more obviously to MacDonald's long and turgid Scottish novels. Granted, the final movements of the book are much more satisfying (in terms of both plot and lyric invention) than the early going. But the early going lasts a long, long time. What Crowley does best in LITTLE, BIG--and it is not an inconsiderable achievement--is paint a picture of a "magical" world in which magic in fact rarely happens; in which, as he says at one memorable point, we sit enthralled in our daily lives, waiting for the curtain to go up and the real show to begin. This is a longing that all of us feel--the longing that most sci-fi/fantasy authors (Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman leap instantly to mind) cater to. LITTLE, BIG's strength is that Crowley is not quite ready to afford easy answers. The curtain trembles; it shimmers. We wait. And wait. It never entirely rises. Waiting (often in vain) is part and parcel of this world's magic, Crowley seems to be saying. So be it. But this world's own peculiar pleasures can be good enough, in the absence of Faerie. The dull, plodding prose that dominates much of LITTLE, BIG gives lie to both worlds. Crowley has written much better, elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: I just don't get it
Review: I picked this book up based upon all the raves. Crowley was linked with Mieville and Neil Gaiman, whom I both love. So I was set to really get into Little, Big. But I just don't get this book at all. Found it trite, cute, and painfully whimsical. Even the writing was wooden. There seems to be a Rorschach quality to all these raves - as if the reader is seeing what they want to be in the book, rather than what is actually there.
Rating: 
Summary: Little Big is a big hit!!!
Review: I really thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was totally lost in the whole story. The fairies, the talking fish, the many-sided house....
I am not a big fantasy book fan, but when I read this book I was fascinated. Just the thought of all that was happening and all the pictures in my head....I was lost in Crowley's world from page 1. My dad gave me this book to read and I loved it so much that he ended up giving it to me. I will treasure this book always and forever.
I recommend this book to all fantasy fans. This is a must read book. May you read it and get lost as I did!
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: It took me a few attempts to get rolling with this book. There is no real action and not a lot of dialogue - the story just sort of meanders along. Still, my perseverance was well-rewarded...and how! John Crowley's writing has an elegance and beauty that is simply incomparable. I could throw out any number of adjectives - lyrical, sensual, dense, profound...in short, an amazing achievement. I have re-read it many times since, and each time I notice new details and depths. Like other reviewers, I always pick up extra copies to loan to my friends. The complex story is hard to describe or explain very well; I just tell them to read it (and return it, which they seldom do). I really don't know what else I can say about this magnificent book. As it has become my favorite novel, I cannot recommend "Little, Big" more highly. How John Crowley's novels remain out-of-print is impossible to fathom. I would also recommend E.R. Eddison's (also out-of-print) "Zimiamvia" trilogy - a beautifully-written fantasy, and Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" trilogy - like "Little, Big" it is short on action and dialogue, but the writing is superb.
Rating:
Summary: Size matters
Review: John Crowley's "Little, Big" is a particularly challenging work of fantasy to read and describe because it is not so much a story as it is about storytelling. Although written by an American in 1981, it often looks like a novel that came from an Englishman in 1881, immersed as it is in a Victorian mode, as though Lewis Carroll had lived into the automotive age and decided to incorporate elements from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" into an epic of magic and madness.
Shakespeare's play is clearly an inspiration, as the essence of "Little, Big" is founded on fairies, pixies, brownies, sprites, sylphs, dryads--i.e., mythological personifications of nature--although most of the characters are (apparently) human. The genesis of the story (or the Tale, as it is referred to throughout the novel) is the marriage of Smoky Barnable, an average, unassuming young man from the mundane world, to a fantastically beautiful and tall girl named Daily Alice Drinkwater, whose family is somehow (or should I say Somehow) connected to the supernatural. The Drinkwaters live in a large, bizarrely constructed house called Edgewood which, not unlike a smaller version of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, is a gothic manor of labyrinthine and spatially illogical architecture surrounded by a demesne of ornate gardens and wooded landscapes and seems almost to exist in an alternate realm of its own, separated from the real world.
The novel does acknowledge the "real" world, but only obliquely, like a surrealistic painting. Smoky and Daily Alice's son Auberon, perplexed by the secrets of the Drinkwater dynasty and desiring to make a living on his own as a writer, comes to the City (transparently New York) to live with his cousin George Mouse, who actually has a farm. It is here that Auberon will eventually meet his Titania, and here also that a distant relation, an old woman mystic named Ariel Hawksquill, will contend with Russell Eigenblick, a tyrant with an ancient past and a future that poses danger for the Tale.
If none of this sounds like the constitution of a cohesive novel, be aware that "Little, Big" has little interest in the conventions of literary genre and instead seeks to achieve a phantasmagorical effect. To this end, Crowley weaves an intricate tapestry of concepts from history, mythology, and his own imagination, employing tarot cards, talking animals, the Holy Roman Empire, a contraption called the Cosmo-Opticon, an orrery (keep a dictionary handy) powered by a perpetual-motion machine, while Auberon's three sisters spin, measure, and cut thread like the Fates. This is heavy, complex, philosophical material to be read with patience and an open mind, not for the common fantasy reader who is hoping for an easy, banal plot.
Crowley's rich, colorful prose pays lavish attention to detail, contrasting the tranquil idyll of Edgewood with the faceless modernity of the City, but even more notably it maintains the narrative in a certain nebulous state, as though the characters were passing in and out of each other's dreams. Everywhere is the thrill that something to be revealed is barely out of reach, and little by little the pieces come together like a finely cut jigsaw puzzle. This book is a marvel; a massively enjoyable journey into the myriad possibilities of post-Victorian fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Magical in Every Sense
Review: Little, Big is no easy read, but is well worth the time. To summarize the plot briefly just to give an idea of the backdrop, Little, Big tells the Tale of Smokey Barnable, an ordinary man who leaves the City to visit with the family of one of his coworkers at their country house, Edgewood. There he meets (and marries) Daily Alice Drinkwater and her family, who all are Somehow part of a larger tapestry bridging the world as Smokey knows it and the world of the faerie. Be forewarned, though -- for a book about Faerie, don't expect little people with pointy ears on each page a la Lord of the Rings (which I love, btw, that is not meant disparagingly). On first read, there won't seem to be a lot of Faerie in it at all. But, the Faerie are mostly hidden on each page of Little, Big just as they are in Edgewood, and thoughout the read the sense of magic is everywhere. Little, Big is at once epic in scope and deeply personal, magical and commonplace. That is part of the wonder of the book, the sense of magic that Crowley works into the quotidian, the feeling that something so unplausible really could be. Crowley's prose is incredibly rich, atmospheric and moving -- I often found myself wondering how he could write so many rich and beautiful lines in one book without ever feeling artificial. There is not a lot of action, although so many things happen. There is not a lot of dialogue, although there are at least 8 major characters and scores of supporting players. And, as mentioned, there's not a lot of faeries, although they are everywhere (read it and you'll understand!). But, Little, Big is easily one of the best books I've read in the past ten years, the kind of work that is as magical as its subject matter and makes you long for more works this grand. It is a crime that Crowley has not found a wider audience, he is truly one of the most talented writers I've read.
Rating:
Summary: Magical in Every Sense
Review: Little, Big is no easy read, but is well worth the time. To summarize the plot briefly just to give an idea of the backdrop, Little, Big tells the Tale of Smokey Barnable, an ordinary man who leaves the City to visit with the family of one of his coworkers at their country house, Edgewood. There he meets (and marries) Daily Alice Drinkwater and her family, who all are Somehow part of a larger tapestry bridging the world as Smokey knows it and the world of the faerie. Be forewarned, though -- for a book about Faerie, don't expect little people with pointy ears on each page a la Lord of the Rings (which I love, btw, that is not meant disparagingly). On first read, there won't seem to be a lot of Faerie in it at all. But, the Faerie are mostly hidden on each page of Little, Big just as they are in Edgewood, and thoughout the read the sense of magic is everywhere. Little, Big is at once epic in scope and deeply personal, magical and commonplace. That is part of the wonder of the book, the sense of magic that Crowley works into the quotidian, the feeling that something so unplausible really could be. Crowley's prose is incredibly rich, atmospheric and moving -- I often found myself wondering how he could write so many rich and beautiful lines in one book without ever feeling artificial. There is not a lot of action, although so many things happen. There is not a lot of dialogue, although there are at least 8 major characters and scores of supporting players. And, as mentioned, there's not a lot of faeries, although they are everywhere (read it and you'll understand!). But, Little, Big is easily one of the best books I've read in the past ten years, the kind of work that is as magical as its subject matter and makes you long for more works this grand. It is a crime that Crowley has not found a wider audience, he is truly one of the most talented writers I've read.
Rating:
Summary: Unlike any book you will ever read
Review: Little, Big is not easy reading, and the writing isn't always consistent. That said, it is a moving, strange, and melancholy work that rightfully deserves a place as a classic in fantasy literature. The first sections, which detail the history of the Drinkwater family, are the most beautiful and intriguing pieces of fiction I have ever read. Crowley manages to write about fantastic things-- a house with multiple fronts, fish that talk, fairies in the woods-- and make their reality as unquestionable as a tree, a book, or a car. I can't claim to understand the book entirely, and there are times when it spins out of control, particularly towards the end, when Crowley writes about the strange resurrection and downfall of a Holy Roman Emperor, who takes over a 20th century city that bears more than a passing resemblance to New York. All the same, Little Big is a brave, shimmering thing, and I wish more people would read it. It is one of the few books I have read that succeeds in evoking a new, yet weirdly familiar world, for its readers.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely my favorite book of all time.
Review: One of those books you can read again and again, finding new things with each reading. An epic sort of work, that explores several generations of a family whose lives are closely entwined with the mythic world of faerie. However, it does not move sequentially through these generations, but jumps about and flashes back giving you the pieces of a puzzle you must put together. The story has a circular and cyclical quality that gives it a "never ending" appeal. The characters are genuine and likable, and the setting is both contemporary and timeless in quality. We begin the story with Smoky Barnable, an ordinary sort of man, he has left the City and given up his job editing the Telephone book. He is walking down a country lane on the way to be married. Walking there, by the way, was one of the stipulations of the wedding. His bride-to-be is Daily Alice, whose family lives at Edgewood, a house that sits on "the edge" of the world and was built by Alice's grandfather. Alice's Aunt Cloud is sitting on the front porch following Smoky's progress with her tarot cards, while Alice's father is in his study writing children's stories about the mouse-famliy that lives in the garden wall. Smoky met Alice through Frank Mouse, Smoky's co-worker and Alice's cousin. Frank, who's illegitimate child with Alice's sister Sophie was stollen by faeries and replaced with a changeling, is commonly known as the City Mouse. OK, I think you get the idea...
Rating:
Summary: Wow...
Review: That's pretty much all I can say about this novel. It certainly is the most frustrating, convoluted, wordy, and confusing story I have ever read- but I loved every second of it. Or did I? I really don't know. It is also the most elaborate, emotional, thought provoking, and inspirational story I have read either. Crowley is amazing at describing all those little thoughts you have in your head, all the intangible feelings you have, all the unfulfilled desires you feel- in a way that makes you think "Yes, exactly- that's it- that's how it is!" The book certainly gets larger, deeper, and more involved the further in you go. Those of you who need a final, conclusive ending with a clear plot line steer clear. However, it is a deeply moving book for reasons I really can't describe. I would really recommend taking your time and savoring all the (vast) descriptions- let yourself be immersed into the story. It took me a second try to finish the book- I just didn't get it the first time around and put it down, frustrated and bored. My second time was much more enlightening- I went into it expecting a deep read and was well rewarded (though it will be some time before I pick it up again- it's almost exhausting in it's complexity).
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