"if this were indeed a tale, and she in it, then no gesture she or any of them could make was not a part of it, no rising up to dance or sitting down to eat and drink, no blessing or curse, no joy, no longing, no error; if they fled the Tale or struggled against it, well, that too was part of the Tale"

Wow.

Little, Big might be the most significant book I've ever read. A story about stories that is also a story about one specific story (that's an important distinction, between the Tale and this tale about the Tale); and at the same time a story about all stories: a sort of meta-commentary on storytelling.

As per the title, Little, Big feels both huge and miniscule. There are times when the story seems too massive in scope to fit within the 500-odd pages. Others, it reads as little more than a collection of interrelated vignettes, taking in fairytale, generational melodrama, urban lit fic, and outright fantasy.

At one point a character remarks that they feel as if they're moving from scene to scene with "blank pages" in between. The members of the Drinkwater family and their various relations know that they are in a story. Not in an Abed Nadir way, but in the way in which we all narrativise our lives, transforming our ups and downs, joys and griefs into some grand Tale.