Little, by Edward Carey
Scrappy narrator alert! (+ author/illustrator)
A few months ago I was invited to a clothing swap. I mostly didn’t know the people, but it’s tough to imagine a world where I’d turn down such an invitation.
Soon after my arrival, a woman mentioned a “weird, irresistable book” she read with her book club. Say no more.
To get it out front, Little is not a little book. It’s a 400-page, multi-decade saga that earned its keep traveling both ways on airplane.
Anne Marie Grossholtz is born, small and early, in 1761 in the Alsace region of France. Marie is not supposed to live, but she does (like I said, 400 pages). She’s very focused on the anatomy of her face, which features come from her mother, which from her father. Marie’s soldier father is wounded when a cannon backfires. He dies, leaving our scrappy narrator and her mother to get on with it.
Bonus! There are illustrations. Right in the novel! I only realized later that the illustrations are by Carey himself.
They travel to Bern, Switzerland in response to a doctor’s ad for housekeeping. This is where things get interesting. The doctor doesn’t treat patients, but makes wax models of organs. Marie finds a vocation. The reader is treated to more illustrations— instruments, organs, metaphors. Ultimately the party leaves Bern for Paris. Decades unfold, bringing more characters and along with them hardships, opportunity, and ghosts of monkeys past (yes). Grief, demotion in status, jealously. Triumphs: honing a craft despite the odds, patience, kindness, making peace. Also, the French Revolution.
I cannot now say for certain—those early years being so far away and the other actors in them being no longer upon the stage—
Little, Edward Carey
Another thing: Marie in this book—referred to as Little by the evil stepmother figure? She turns out to be the woman who eventually becomes Madame Tussaud of wax museum fame.
A second other thing: Shortly into Little, I wrote to the woman who recommended it. “I love the illustrations,” I said. “What illustrations?” She listened to it. A shame, I thought, until I listened to the audio sample. It’s narrated by Jayne Entwistle, who I’d happily listen to for 400 pages.
In short, if you could do with a plucky narrator to root for, you can’t go wrong with Little.
Happy Reading!
Notes:
https://edwardcareyauthor.com/books/little/
I listened to this a few years ago and loved it, too! And like your friend, I had no idea about the illustrations! You're right--it is a shame! I'm going to be on the lookout for a hard copy.
“Prodigal Texan” is a phrase I’ve needed to hear my whole life and never knew.