06/29/2015
Humorist Key was born in Memphis, but when he was six, his father moved the family back to his native Mississippi—a state, according to Key, that's "too impoverished to afford punctuation, where some families save their whole lives for a semicolon." Ever the raconteur, Key fills this rollicking memoir with tales of growing up with a larger-than-life father and being raised in the country, where boys would learn to fish and hunt and farm. Key soon discovers that he'd rather be reading than hunting, though he's reluctant ever to speak with his father about his hobby; the men in his family shun all books except the Bible, which they read more out of fear and guilt than genuine interest. Eventually, after Key kills his first deer, he and his father come to détente about Key's reading, and the son spends his mornings in his deer stand reading Tolkien rather than picking off bucks. When Key heads off to college and then becomes a husband and a father, he realizes how much he's inherited his father's "redneck" ways, but he also recognizes that he can never love what his father loves, no matter how hard he's tried. Key's memoir concludes by narrating the struggles many men experience: sons never living up to their fathers' expectations, sons feeling that they've let down or hurt their fathers, a sometimes lengthy period of alienation, and the healing moments brought on by the father's new bond with his son's children. (May)
The World's Largest Man: A Memoir
Narrated by Harrison Scott Key
Harrison Scott KeyUnabridged — 9 hours, 4 minutes
The World's Largest Man: A Memoir
Narrated by Harrison Scott Key
Harrison Scott KeyUnabridged — 9 hours, 4 minutes
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Overview
Harrison, with his love of books and excessive interest in hugging, couldn't have been less like Pop, and when it became clear that he was not able to kill anything very well or otherwise make his father happy, he resolved to become everything his father was not: an actor, a Presbyterian, and a doctor of philosophy. But when it was time to settle down and start a family of his own, Harrison started to view his father in a new light, and realized-for better and for worse-how much of his old man he'd absorbed.
Sly, heartfelt, and tirelessly hilarious, The World's Largest Man is an unforgettable memoir.
Editorial Reviews
A loose and rollicking compendium of stories that’s billed as a memoir but comports itself more like a killer concept album.” — Garden & Gun
“You don’t need to be a hunter or even a man to enjoy this exceptional memoir.” — New York Journal of Books
“Consistently seasoned with laughs, this memoir is adroitly warm and deep when it is called for. An uncommonly entertaining story replete with consistent wit and lethal weaponry.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“The World’s Largest Man [is] a collection of essays, a memoir that reads like fiction. It truly is a gem.” — The Bitter Southerner
“[Key has] a comic voice that puts him in the choir with other humorists you may have heard of—such as P.J. O’Rourke, Roy Blount Jr., Garrison Keillor, Lewis Grizzard, Dave Barry and others. Maybe even Mark Twain. ‘The World’s Largest Man’ is a triumph of a comic memoir.” — Mississippi Business Journal
“Funny as well as tender.” — New York Times
“Ever the raconteur, Key fills this rollicking memoir with tales of growing up with a larger-than-life father and being raised in the country, where boys would learn to fish and hunt and farm.” — Publishers Weekly
“It reads like fiction that is too crazy to be anything but truth. Fans of memoir, personal essays, and humor writing will devour this in one sitting.” — Library Journal
“Indeed, like many of the great Southern humorists, Key relies on wit to bridge the deep emotional fissures that many people, at least of the thinking persuasion, have to cross when trying to reconcile the historic evils of the South with their own enduring love for it.” — Memphis Commercial Appeal
“Blessedly, Key writes with a parched sense of humor, because his stories might otherwise qualify as tragedy. The line here between gasping and guffawing is piano-wire thin, but mostly you enjoy, swept up how Key ekes some brow-furrowing wisdom from most experiences. He’s a masterful writer and observer.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Both laugh-out-loud funny and observant about the ways we become our parents while asserting ourselves, The World’s Largest Man is a wise delight.” — BookPage
“The sardonic tone and spicy language may prompt comparisons to David Sedaris, another humorist who has perfected the narrative stance of put-upon outsider vs. risible eccentrics.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“What I have read of Harrison Key’s memoir makes me want to read more.” — Roy Blount Jr., Author of Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South
“Harrison Key will make you laugh and cry in his compelling essays. And whatever emotion he evokes, you will admire the style, grace and clarity of his prose.” — Lee Gutkind, Founder and Editor of Creative Nonfiction
“I haven’t laughed like this in years. I felt like I stumbled upon an undiscovered treasure when I read Harrison Scott Key’s The World’s Largest Man. I couldn’t wait to tell my friends. Rare hilarity, indeed, in these asinine times.” — Neil White Author of In the Sanctuary of Outcasts
[Key has] a comic voice that puts him in the choir with other humorists you may have heard of—such as P.J. O’Rourke, Roy Blount Jr., Garrison Keillor, Lewis Grizzard, Dave Barry and others. Maybe even Mark Twain. ‘The World’s Largest Man’ is a triumph of a comic memoir.
The World’s Largest Man [is] a collection of essays, a memoir that reads like fiction. It truly is a gem.
Funny as well as tender.
You don’t need to be a hunter or even a man to enjoy this exceptional memoir.
Blessedly, Key writes with a parched sense of humor, because his stories might otherwise qualify as tragedy. The line here between gasping and guffawing is piano-wire thin, but mostly you enjoy, swept up how Key ekes some brow-furrowing wisdom from most experiences. He’s a masterful writer and observer.
A loose and rollicking compendium of stories that’s billed as a memoir but comports itself more like a killer concept album.
Indeed, like many of the great Southern humorists, Key relies on wit to bridge the deep emotional fissures that many people, at least of the thinking persuasion, have to cross when trying to reconcile the historic evils of the South with their own enduring love for it.
Harrison Key will make you laugh and cry in his compelling essays. And whatever emotion he evokes, you will admire the style, grace and clarity of his prose.
Both laugh-out-loud funny and observant about the ways we become our parents while asserting ourselves, The World’s Largest Man is a wise delight.
I haven’t laughed like this in years. I felt like I stumbled upon an undiscovered treasure when I read Harrison Scott Key’s The World’s Largest Man. I couldn’t wait to tell my friends. Rare hilarity, indeed, in these asinine times.
What I have read of Harrison Key’s memoir makes me want to read more.
The sardonic tone and spicy language may prompt comparisons to David Sedaris, another humorist who has perfected the narrative stance of put-upon outsider vs. risible eccentrics.
The sardonic tone and spicy language may prompt comparisons to David Sedaris, another humorist who has perfected the narrative stance of put-upon outsider vs. risible eccentrics.
"Consistently seasoned with laughs, this memoir is adroitly warm and deep when it is called for. An uncommonly entertaining story replete with consistent wit and lethal weaponry." —Kirkus Starred Review
I haven’t laughed like this in years. I felt like I stumbled upon an undiscovered treasure when I read Harrison Scott Key’s The World’s Largest Man. I couldn’t wait to tell my friends. Rare hilarity, indeed, in these asinine times.
★ 2015-03-15
Oxford American humor columnist Key (English/Savannah Coll. of Art and Design) pens a memoir about his father, a man with "the emotional tenderness of a Soviet farm tractor." As a boy, the author was partial to sock puppets, calligraphy, and poems tapped out on an electric typewriter. Even so, "Pop" attempted to teach his son all the necessary outdoor skills so important to a growing boy, including contact sports, fishing, fighting, and the frequent employment of firearms to "kill shit." (In a "Note to the Reader," the author writes, "I have changed the names of many characters…because most of those people own guns.") Those were the pertinent and suitable activities for boys coming of age in the environs of Coldwater, Mississippi. Key's relationships with his loving mother, a badass elder brother, and, eventually, a beloved wife and cherished children all connect with Pop and the author's position as the strange scion of a big man with a huge head on a red neck. The author eventually evolved from a blameless, scared kid to an innocent, scared adult as he learned the odd joy of danger and how to wear a bow tie. Pop evolved, as well, as the paterfamilias who learned to disregard his instinctive rule for human contact: men over here, women over there. Key had his basic training in American civilization, particularly as practiced in the not-so-long-ago South. His spouse supervised such matters as babies—how to make them, diaper them, and raise them—though she is never mentioned by name. Forget the touch of Jean Shepherd, the satire of Gary Shteyngart, or the dash of Dave Barry; Key's talent is all his own, and it is solid. Consistently seasoned with laughs, this memoir is adroitly warm and deep when it is called for. An uncommonly entertaining story replete with consistent wit and lethal weaponry.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171213282 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Publication date: | 08/01/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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