The World's Largest Man - Hardcover

Key, Harrison Scott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062351494 ISBN 13: 9780062351494

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2015

Synopsis

Winner of the 2016 Thurber Prize

The riotous, tender story of a bookish Mississippi boy and his flawed, Bunyanesque father, told with the comic verve of David Sedaris and the deft satire of Mark Twain or Roy Blount, Jr.

Harrison Scott Key was born in Memphis, but he grew up in Mississippi, among pious, Bible-reading women and men who either shot things or got women pregnant. At the center of his world was his larger-than-life father--a hunter, a fighter, a football coach, "a man better suited to living in a remote frontier wilderness of the nineteenth century than contemporary America, with all its progressive ideas, and paved roads, and lack of armed duels. He was a great man, and he taught me many things: How to fight, how to work, how to cheat, how to pray to Jesus about it, how to kill things with guns and knives and, if necessary, with hammers."

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--the story of a boy's struggle to reconcile himself with an impossibly outsized role model, a grown man's reckoning with the father it took him a lifetime to understand.

About this title

Review:

a loose and rollicking compendium of stories that s billed as a memoir but comports itself more like a killer concept album. --"Garden & Gun""

a comic voice of 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""

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"

From the Back Cover:

Winner of the 2016 Thurber Prize

Harrison Scott Key was born in Memphis, but he grew up in Mississippi, among pious Bible-reading women and men who either shot things or got women pregnant. At the center of his world was his larger-than-life father--a hunter, a fighter, a football coach, "a man better suited to living in a remote frontier wilderness of the nineteenth century than contemporary America, with all its progressive ideas and paved roads and lack of armed duels. He was a great man, and he taught me many things: how to fight and work and cheat and how to pray to Jesus about it, how to kill things with guns and knives and, if necessary, with hammers."

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 began to view his father in a new light and realized--for better and for worse--how much like his old man he'd become.

Sly, heartfelt, and tirelessly hilarious, The World's Largest Man is an unforgettable memoir--the story of a boy's struggle to reconcile himself with an impossibly outsize role model, and a grown man's reckoning with the father it took him a lifetime to understand.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062351494
• ISBN 13: 9780062351494
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 335