Giant (Library Binding)

~ (Author) "THIS MARCH DAY the vast and brassy sky, always spangled with the silver glint of airplanes, roared and glittered with celestial traffic..." (more)
Key Phrases: brush jacket, cow hand, brush country, Uncle Bawley, Jett Rink, Bick Benedict (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A powerful story...truly as big as its subject." -- --Los Angeles Times

"Her vocabulary is rich and vital; she sees material objects with a penetrating and delightful vision." -- --New York Tribune

"Miss Ferber at her best, and that's very good indeed." -- --St. Louis Globe-Democrat --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

This sweeping tale captures the essence of Texas on a staggering scale as it chronicles the life and times of cattleman Jordan "Bick" Benedict, his naive young society wife, Leslie, and three generations of land-rich sons.A sensational story of power, love, cattle barons, and oil tycoons, Giant was the basis of the classic film starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Library Binding
• Publisher: Buccaneer Books (June 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899668062
• ISBN-13: 978-0899668062
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,331,703 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great satire of Texas life, March 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Giant (Perennial Classics) (Paperback)

I loved the movie Giant, but was bowled over by the book. Ferber is a first-rate storyteller-- each character is appropriately developed and the language and phrasing are amazing. The landscape imagery is fantastic, but Ferber's genius is in describing--both visually and in the narrative--the delicate social structure that is the underpinning of the entire plot.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A story as big as Texas, May 29, 2004

By	Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Giant (Perennial Classics) (Paperback)

For today's readers, the gushing language of Edna Ferber's classic, Giant, will read as a bit overblown. Even in the 50s, I don't believe intelligent young women from Virginia would have spoken as Leslie speaks to her husband or his friends and their wives. But for all its flaws, Giant is still a heck of a good story, and if you don't skim some of the wordy stretches, you'll find yourself getting a good lesson in Texas history and culture.
Cattle barons, instant oil millionaires, lavish entertaining, family intrigue, the Mexican immigrant situation - it's all here, seen through the eyes of a young and naive bride from the gentile state of Virginia.
And it's worth a read. Not great literature, but a great story.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slice of Texas History, December 8, 2005

By	Ngoc Nguyen "Lorelei Nguyen" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Giant (Perennial Classics) (Paperback)

I have to admit that when I started out reading this book, it was terribly confusing. The first five chapters take place in the future, then the story backtracks to explain the events that took place before. After a while, though, it became apparent that this unconventional ordering only made the story even more enchanting.

Being a Texan myself, I found the setting and social customs described in the book very accurate. Leslie was a mesmerizing main character, possessing wisdom beyond her years that outshone all of the other characters' intelligence combined. Parts of the book weren't very characteristic of her--Leslie does eventually end up settling down a bit and loses a lot of her initial independence and do-good attitude that made her so attractive in the first place. Also, there are many aspects of the story that weren't very realistic at all--Jett Rink's obsessive, yet weakly explained, infatuation with Leslie, for example.

But overall, this is a wonderfully-written book with very memorable characters, is a realistic love story, and is a dazzling slice of Texas history that you likely won't be able to put down until you've reached the end.