Daniel Wallace, author of the New York Times best-seller Big Fish, the inspiration for the recent film starring Ewan McGregor, is neither a Southern writer nor a Playboy bunny: “the two titles are similar in that they are more limiting than anything-automatically as a Southern writer, and as a Playboy bunny, there are certain expectations of you,” said Wallace.
Although his book has the bizarre, magic realism that often characterized the work of Southern novelists such as William Faulkner, he believes that his message appeals more to the universal small-town dweller who seeks the greener grass of the outside world.
In his novel, Wallace tells the tale of Edward Bloom, a man driven by desire for success and defined by his mythical stories of far and familiar places. Set in small town Alabama, where Daniel was raised, the story takes on a very autobiographical role.
Wallace’s relationship with his father, like that of Edward and his son Will Bloom was distant. Declaring writing as his career choice was particularly hard for Wallace, whose father often said “your stories and 50 cents could buy me a latt?.” His father, a trade tycoon, was a world traveler, fantastical story-teller, and had a very different view of success than Wallace did, as reflected in the father/son dynamic of the book.
The measure of success is a major theme in Wallace’s novel and in the screenplay written by John August . In the film, Will tells his father Edward that a man is successful if he can be said to be loved by his son.
Author Wallace defines success as “being able to live life on your own terms.” He then asks, “If you don’t achieve your goal, are you a failure? I don’t think so. You can’t quantify a life by that.” To Wallace, any career success that he has achieved would be empty without his family. Edward Bloom, an accurate but embellished portrayal of Wallace’s father, wouldn’t say the same.
One of the most drastic differences between Wallace’s novel and the movie is Edward’s fidelity to his wife Ezra Templeton. In the film, Edward turns down advances from Jenny, while the book details an extensive affair with this backwoods mistress. Wallace admits that it would have been hard for a movie audience to have sympathized with an adulterer, saying “while the love story between Ezra and Edward is a significant part of the movie, Edward, as imagined in my mind is a man incapable of the love shown in the film. He’s in love with himself.” Thus, the spiritual essence of Edward’s character is lost in the onscreen adaptation.
When asked if he identified with Edward, Wallace answered with a strong and sincere “no.” Several interruptions in our interview, where he cooed “I love you” to his wife and volunteered to wrap some birthday gifts confirmed that he and Edward are very different fish.
One important thing that the book and film do have in common is the emotional and visual appeal of their endings: Wallace’s eloquent language in the novel and director Tim Burton’s wonderful contrast of the stark, wintry Alabama woods and the wild, colorfully costumed characters of Edward’s tall-tales.
Wallace’s latest novel, The Watermelon King, released last summer, is set in the same small town as Big Fish. In the story, the fertility of the world’s greatest watermelons depends on the yearly sacrifice of the town’s oldest male virgin’s manhood. Could a plot like that take place anywhere other than the often bizarre and backwards South? As Wallace says, “asking me if the South has affected my work is like asking a fish if water has affected his outlook on life.”
