Customer Reviews

The Watermelon King: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoyed THE WATERMELON KING a lot. I enjoyed the way it kept happening on its own peculiar terms. My expectation as a reader is to encounter characters who are drawn according to a predictable and, at least for the purposes of fiction, a malleable psychology--in other words, characters who are in the business of not being themselves, or of not knowing what a self is. Of course Shakespeare didn't write this way, or Faulkner. Wallace's characters, too, are grandly or mythically motivated--not parsed out the way modern people like to think of themselves. These characters are what they are and they do the thing they are. They don't play at growth. It's quite nice to be taken into this pre-therapeutic and unsophisticated universe -- a fabulous universe if you will -- and be told a story about love, fertility, and the way we thrive on the story itself--the telling of the story, the passing on of the story, and ultimately, the tragedy of the story. WATERMELON KING is a work that sticks around.

With Watermelon King, Wallace builds on Big Fish and Ray in Reverse by writing what is the most cohesive novel of the trio. Publisher's Weekly called it a "slight mistep," I call that a "slight misread." Come on. He's at his best here, combining the best of that staitforward storytelling seen in O'Conner, the strong regional construction of Faulkner, and the magical realism of Marquez. Unlike, say... Rushdie, Wallace avoids using magical realism in an apish, overwhelming way, but rather puts it in service of the story. He takes it over the top just enough. This book pushes the limits of genre, avoiding the perimeters of most of the bland treacle that we submit our eyes to. You oughta read it. Great book.

As a Southerner and lover of Southern literature, I especially enjoy books that celebrate the art of storytelling. Anyone who has read Big Fish can tell you that Daniel Wallace is a master storyteller, and The Watermelon King proves it. I can't wait for the next one!

I've read Daniel Wallace's last two books, and I think The Watermelon King is his best, even better than Big Fish, which I heard was being made into a movie by Tim Burton. The Watermelon King takes stock Southern characters-- the village idiot, the old man with stories-- and turns them on their heads by making them the heroes. Daniel Wallace's writing is always funny and sad at the same time, and in this book, it's also pretty absorbing and much more risky. I highly recommend this book to people who like something a little different, funny, and moving.

I read Wallace's first novel BIG FISH and liked it a lot -- it's really funny and totally knocks you out emotionally in the end -- so I moved onto this one, which is set in the same town and deals with similar themes.

I say similar and not the same because Wallace has clearly grown as a writer; he has a magical way of telling a story that has you guessing what really happened all the way through. THE WATERMELON KING was even more strange than BIG FISH, and I loved it. I haven't read such an original writer in a long time. it's as if a southerner was channeling Garcia Marquez or something -- indescribable, but fantastic in every sense of the word.

This book is about Thomas Rider, an 18 year old boy from Birmingham, Alabama who travels to the small, fictional town of Ashland, Alabama to learn more about his mother, Lucy Rider, prior to her death the day he was born. Upon arriving, he meets several very interesting, and at times, unsettling small town people who tell them their various perspectives on his mother, sprinkled with the actual facts surrounding her existance in Ashland. Apparently, she arrived in Ashland, seemingly out of now where, and settles in. She teaches the town idiot how to read and refurbishes a once dilapilated house, among other things. Her most important action in town causes her to be ostrasized, even villanized. She effectively discontinues the Watermelon King festival, a festival that the people of Ashland pride in. As a result, they blame her for destroying their once bountiful supply of watermelon crops. Thomas's return to town brings out old grudges and sheds light on Thomas's actual origins, a fact that rocks his world.

The way the stories were told from the various points of view, at least in the beginning, reminded me of "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner, except it was a lot easier to understand. This short novel has it's own charm that I can only describe as quirky. Myths, tall tales, and flat out lies are introduced but are properly quashed as Thomas discovers more about his past. I can't really say alot about this book. It's not "excellent" but it's not "terrible." I enjoyed the story, but it felt a little too underwhelming and short. High on drama this book is not. Just like the ordinary, small town of Ashland, the story just seems to exist, just waiting to be discovered, with not much to make a deal out of it.

This book is a must-read, along with Jackson McCrae's Bark of the Dogwood and a new book titled The End of Blackness. All of these are stellar books--well-written and well thought out. Watermelon King rings true especially with its atmosphere and setting, dialogue, and believeble characters. A must!

Also recommended: The End of Blackness and Bark of the Dogwood

I enjoyed a lot of aspects of this book. It had a good premise, and the interview section was intriguing. However, I felt the dialogue, and character development fell short once the book reached part two. An excellent storyline, but I felt the book was too short to fully explore it. I will read other work by Daniel Wallace in the future. I hope it is merely the case that this is not his best work, because the piece had so much potential.

I am not a english major, or a writer, or even an avid reader. I am just an average reader, and the review I am writting is based on my general feeling after reading this book, and that is: It's good, but not Great. The way the book begins, and the way the chapters are arranged as "interviews" really draws you in. I feel like the characters are interesting, and I could really start to feel myself getting sucked in... you know that feeling. I was able to visualize the people and the town. Then... the plot just started getting a little too weird for me, in particular the last 30 pages or so. Huge, life changing things are discovered and then not explored or discussed- just dropped, while the Watermelon festival takes center stage at the end, in a twisted way. Just weird.

The Watermelon King is a lovely book -- funny,sad, and amazing. It reminded me a little of Marquez and Calvino, with a dash of Flannery O'Connor. I liked it so much I'm giving it an extra star -- here: *.