Jo-Ann Costa
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Spanning 1843 through 1981, this novel follows the Janson family, through Jo-Dee Janson Cipriano (a fictional take on the author, Jo-Ann Costa, I presume), a young woman fascinated by her great-grandfather, Big Daddy -- Horatio 'Ratio' Gage Janson. Rude, unruly, wild, downright 'randy' (according to her mother), Jo-Dee knows Big Daddy only as a wizened old man on the verge of death. His passing prompts her to seek out the truth of his story, propelled by a curiosity to know just how bad, how wild, and how randy he really was.
In proper gothic tradition, the circumstances of Big Daddy's birth are shrouded in secrecy and lies. His mother, the stunningly gorgeous and staggeringly selfish Mina Satterley is a Southern belle forced into exile from her family's plantation with the arrival of the Civil War. Her husband, sweet Clay Man Janson, besotted with her since a boy, has become a soldier and is presumed dead, unloved by Mina and unknown by Ratio. Mina has taken up with an Alabama senator for her keep, a man who loathes Ratio but offers employment to keep the boy out of trouble. Charmed, perhaps, with a good luck amulet from a childhood incident with the circus, Ratio manages well -- but still gets himself into trouble with the surety of a compass finding north.
Some of the characters -- Ratio primary -- are hard to like. They're cruel, mean, rude, ignorant, violent, selfish -- but they are fascinating. Like a car accident or a sordid argument, you can't look away -- and really, why look away?
Costa has a sharp sense of her characters and the appeal of a sordid, tangled drama, but I occasionally found the writing clunky. I preferred the historical sections as the more contemporary ones rang a tad awkward. I also have to confess that the use of dialect in dialogue was off-putting and distracting for me; I appreciate the desire to indicate a different style of speaking, but as all her white Southern characters speak grammatically correct English, it was noticeable that the slaves and freed people of color all spoke something more muddled and broken.
Still, there's a lovely kind of spoken rhythm to the story -- mimicking in some ways the storytelling that we see happen in the book, as happens at the Janson's reunion in 1981, relatives replaying and rehashing their shared familial memory -- and the reader is invited into that circle. If you like tawdry Southern family drama that steers toward Capote-meets-Leonard rather than V.C. Andrews, this is your book.… (mehr)
In proper gothic tradition, the circumstances of Big Daddy's birth are shrouded in secrecy and lies. His mother, the stunningly gorgeous and staggeringly selfish Mina Satterley is a Southern belle forced into exile from her family's plantation with the arrival of the Civil War. Her husband, sweet Clay Man Janson, besotted with her since a boy, has become a soldier and is presumed dead, unloved by Mina and unknown by Ratio. Mina has taken up with an Alabama senator for her keep, a man who loathes Ratio but offers employment to keep the boy out of trouble. Charmed, perhaps, with a good luck amulet from a childhood incident with the circus, Ratio manages well -- but still gets himself into trouble with the surety of a compass finding north.
Some of the characters -- Ratio primary -- are hard to like. They're cruel, mean, rude, ignorant, violent, selfish -- but they are fascinating. Like a car accident or a sordid argument, you can't look away -- and really, why look away?
Costa has a sharp sense of her characters and the appeal of a sordid, tangled drama, but I occasionally found the writing clunky. I preferred the historical sections as the more contemporary ones rang a tad awkward. I also have to confess that the use of dialect in dialogue was off-putting and distracting for me; I appreciate the desire to indicate a different style of speaking, but as all her white Southern characters speak grammatically correct English, it was noticeable that the slaves and freed people of color all spoke something more muddled and broken.
Still, there's a lovely kind of spoken rhythm to the story -- mimicking in some ways the storytelling that we see happen in the book, as happens at the Janson's reunion in 1981, relatives replaying and rehashing their shared familial memory -- and the reader is invited into that circle. If you like tawdry Southern family drama that steers toward Capote-meets-Leonard rather than V.C. Andrews, this is your book.… (mehr)
Big Daddy aka Horatio “Ratio” Janson story begins before he was born. We meet his Grandmother and grandfather. A Mother who wanted the very best for her son Clay Man Janson, she let him go live on a plantation to grown up. The Southern Aristocracy before the War.
The story does open with Jo-Dee and the Summer of 1953. She is with her Dad to say goodbye to her Great Grandfather Ratio, he was dying at the age of 91. Thus begins Jo-Dee's search for answers about her families history, mainly Big Daddy.
The book is about the colorful life of Ratio...and boy was it. He looked at a lot of adversity, but eventually he seemed to come out on top. His father died in the Civil War, before he was born. His Mother Mina, is one spoiled woman, she barely looks out for her son.
When the Yankee's come to burn their plantation, Mina, Ratio, and two former slaves go to Alabama to live. He is brought up there, mainly by Janie. As he grows, he becomes a handful, and the things that happened to him follow him, he was assaulted at the circus. His Mother takes a lover, a Senator, who then takes Ratio to teach him the life of a worker. Thus begins the Big Daddy, with his driven personality.
After he is almost murdered by the Senator, his life takes up turns and down turns. He does seem to come out on top. He marries a sweet delicate woman, and has eight children, but enough is never enough for him.
We travel with him through the South, that isn't seen in the movies, or heard of in the papers. Where just being black is reason to be arrested for a made up crime, and put in a chain gang!
Follow Big Daddy as he goes through his life, unfortunately there is a lot of sex in the book, and a lot of woman, and illegitimate children. It is one of his big undoings..he does not mind killing, he goes to prison.
Follow Jo-Dee as she unravels the puzzle of her Great Grandfather, the ending is so heartwarming!
I received this book through TLC Book Tours, and was not required to give a positive review.… (mehr)
The story does open with Jo-Dee and the Summer of 1953. She is with her Dad to say goodbye to her Great Grandfather Ratio, he was dying at the age of 91. Thus begins Jo-Dee's search for answers about her families history, mainly Big Daddy.
The book is about the colorful life of Ratio...and boy was it. He looked at a lot of adversity, but eventually he seemed to come out on top. His father died in the Civil War, before he was born. His Mother Mina, is one spoiled woman, she barely looks out for her son.
When the Yankee's come to burn their plantation, Mina, Ratio, and two former slaves go to Alabama to live. He is brought up there, mainly by Janie. As he grows, he becomes a handful, and the things that happened to him follow him, he was assaulted at the circus. His Mother takes a lover, a Senator, who then takes Ratio to teach him the life of a worker. Thus begins the Big Daddy, with his driven personality.
After he is almost murdered by the Senator, his life takes up turns and down turns. He does seem to come out on top. He marries a sweet delicate woman, and has eight children, but enough is never enough for him.
We travel with him through the South, that isn't seen in the movies, or heard of in the papers. Where just being black is reason to be arrested for a made up crime, and put in a chain gang!
Follow Big Daddy as he goes through his life, unfortunately there is a lot of sex in the book, and a lot of woman, and illegitimate children. It is one of his big undoings..he does not mind killing, he goes to prison.
Follow Jo-Dee as she unravels the puzzle of her Great Grandfather, the ending is so heartwarming!
I received this book through TLC Book Tours, and was not required to give a positive review.… (mehr)
As usual, I didn't pay anything for this book but instead it arrived happily in my mail because of a GoodReads giveaway. Despite this very kind consideration I give my candid opinions below.
As the book begins we meet Big Daddy, an irascible and taciturn old man who would as soon tell someone to "F*** Off" as look at them. Big Daddy is a beast of a man with a huge progeny because of a life of casual infidelity to every woman he's ever been with. The balance of the book explains this horrid man's history and how he got to the man he turned out to be.
On the positive side, Costa gives us in Big Daddy a wonderfully disgusting and controversial character. His opportunism and disregard for anyone but himself is infuriating in many ways but as we are told more of his history we begin to understand why he became the insufferable brute that he is. Clearly Big Daddy was an ass of major proportions but given the situation he was put into by fate, one couldn't really expect much better. The author gives us a great rendering of a rather hateful character and a delightfully dark history to boot. His supporting cast is also wonderfully vivid with unapologetic portrayals of former slaves in the post-war South.
On the negative, Costa's writing does sometimes suffer from a few problems with continuity as I found myself flipping back to try to piece together some event that had taken place without any proper introduction. Also, bracketing the narrative of Big Daddy we have the story of Jo-Dee, one of his modern-day descendants who is looking back and getting to know her frightful long-lost ancestor. She makes an appearance narrating the end of Big Daddy's life in the first chapter and appears again in the last chapter describing her unearthing of family history. Frankly, the beginning and ending chapters detract from the story that one really wants out of this book. They introduce a level of soft and gauzy mysticism and "magic" to the story that makes for a rather unpleasant non sequitur.
In summary, loved the bits of the book centering on Big Daddy but, like a cigar, the whole thing would have been more enjoyable with the end cut off. There's a seed of a great story here if only one can remove the husk.
PS: It is my endeavor to provide reviews that are succinct, honest, balanced and above all help the potential reader to answer the simple question, "Do I want to read this or not?" Any feedback you can provide about how you feel I have accomplished those goals (or not) is immensely appreciated.… (mehr)
As the book begins we meet Big Daddy, an irascible and taciturn old man who would as soon tell someone to "F*** Off" as look at them. Big Daddy is a beast of a man with a huge progeny because of a life of casual infidelity to every woman he's ever been with. The balance of the book explains this horrid man's history and how he got to the man he turned out to be.
On the positive side, Costa gives us in Big Daddy a wonderfully disgusting and controversial character. His opportunism and disregard for anyone but himself is infuriating in many ways but as we are told more of his history we begin to understand why he became the insufferable brute that he is. Clearly Big Daddy was an ass of major proportions but given the situation he was put into by fate, one couldn't really expect much better. The author gives us a great rendering of a rather hateful character and a delightfully dark history to boot. His supporting cast is also wonderfully vivid with unapologetic portrayals of former slaves in the post-war South.
On the negative, Costa's writing does sometimes suffer from a few problems with continuity as I found myself flipping back to try to piece together some event that had taken place without any proper introduction. Also, bracketing the narrative of Big Daddy we have the story of Jo-Dee, one of his modern-day descendants who is looking back and getting to know her frightful long-lost ancestor. She makes an appearance narrating the end of Big Daddy's life in the first chapter and appears again in the last chapter describing her unearthing of family history. Frankly, the beginning and ending chapters detract from the story that one really wants out of this book. They introduce a level of soft and gauzy mysticism and "magic" to the story that makes for a rather unpleasant non sequitur.
In summary, loved the bits of the book centering on Big Daddy but, like a cigar, the whole thing would have been more enjoyable with the end cut off. There's a seed of a great story here if only one can remove the husk.
PS: It is my endeavor to provide reviews that are succinct, honest, balanced and above all help the potential reader to answer the simple question, "Do I want to read this or not?" Any feedback you can provide about how you feel I have accomplished those goals (or not) is immensely appreciated.… (mehr)
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My only other quibble with this book was the dialogue. The slaves’ speech was so muddled that I could barely read it, yet the white characters spoke almost perfectly clearly. This didn’t ring true to me but I’m not a historian so I can’t say for sure how people spoke back then. However, it seems like the white people’s speech would have more dialect to it.
Overall, The Bequest of Big Daddy was an enjoyable read. I think fans of Southern historical fiction will want to read the story of Big Daddy.… (mehr)