Big Ray

the long version

"Big Ray's temper and obesity define him. When Big Ray dies, his son feels mostly relief, dismissing his other emotions. Yet years later, the adult son must reckon with the memory of his father's outsized presence. In this stunning novel, a man comes to terms with his father's death-and with his life. Narrated in more than five hundred brief entries, Big Ray becomes more and more complex and intricate as the son's brave confession moves between past and present, between the father's death and life, between an abusive childhood and adult understanding"--Dust jacket.