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Big of You: Stories
Nine loosely linked stories that circle themes of striving and characters who are active and defiant in their desire for independence.
Two young women hitchhike around Europe, discovering uneasy secrets about each other. A casino worker navigates her sad-sack, unlucky life. A team in space is left reeling after a colleague’s unexpected death. A sassy millennia-old being is on display as a roadside attraction. Big of You contains stories of real and fantastical life, each with its own distinctive voice and wild vocabulary. Levine’s characters grapple with ambition, striving, performativity, and self-sabotage, including the sabotage of memory and memory loss.
At turns playful, blistering, unabashed, defiant, these stories examine striving and ambition under the spectre of late-stage capitalism while contending with the hauntings of the past. The language is turbo-charged, highly expressive, conveying a sense of letting loose. In keeping with its transgressive vocabulary, Big of You captures experiences beyond the norms of realist fiction.
Two young women hitchhike around Europe, discovering uneasy secrets about each other. A casino worker navigates her sad-sack, unlucky life. A team in space is left reeling after a colleague’s unexpected death. A sassy millennia-old being is on display as a roadside attraction. Big of You contains stories of real and fantastical life, each with its own distinctive voice and wild vocabulary. Levine’s characters grapple with ambition, striving, performativity, and self-sabotage, including the sabotage of memory and memory loss.
At turns playful, blistering, unabashed, defiant, these stories examine striving and ambition under the spectre of late-stage capitalism while contending with the hauntings of the past. The language is turbo-charged, highly expressive, conveying a sense of letting loose. In keeping with its transgressive vocabulary, Big of You captures experiences beyond the norms of realist fiction.
- GenresShort StoriesCanada
240 pages, Paperback
Published October 7, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 30, 2025
Oh it’s good to be back reading the work of Elise Levine, this time her new book of nine stories, Big of You. As you may already know, there’s no one quite like Levine in terms of story—her unique way of creating the worlds we’re invited to enter, her energizing language employed in startling, even mind-boggling ways, the many ways she has her way with what we call ‘plot.’ You’ll come away from reading these stories enriched.
If you want to read a traditional story with identifiable elements, developments, denouement, etc., one that has one central problem or issue leading to a solution or not, the one with a main character who becomes a different person from the beginning to the end; if you want to lie back in your comfortable La-Z-Boy chair and be entertained, you may well be barking up the wrong tree. If you’re a passive rather than an active reader you’ll be quickly lost—you have to be intellectually sharp and attentive. Sometimes the narrative lines may seem like a tangle of wool requiring unravelling, but the ultimately delightful process is more engaging than frustrating, more rewarding than daunting.
Relationships. Unfolding and fracturing in the city, out in the country, in outer space. New, old, newly failing, long-failing. William Faulkner said there’s nothing worth writing about except the human heart in conflict with itself, and the tensions, the traumas, the foibles and missteps reflect the grief and sorrow that accompany love.
Levine’s voice is distinctive; once you know it, you’d recognize it anywhere, among intelligent, interesting, insightful writers who entice you with possibilities, and surprise you again and again with their skill and imagination. Exquisite phrasing, unusual takes on time, place, love, and life. The full embrace of the first person point of view, and the present tense. More seemingly messy than structured or controlled—in other words, more like kaleidoscopic views of life itself.
You will be moved, you will be struck by the phrasing and clever imagery and evocative details. Surprised by the departure from conventions, the playing fast and loose. Let go of your expectations. Let the words and sentences and all they cleverly and carefully convey wash over you. Enjoy this fine writing from this exceptional writer.
If you want to read a traditional story with identifiable elements, developments, denouement, etc., one that has one central problem or issue leading to a solution or not, the one with a main character who becomes a different person from the beginning to the end; if you want to lie back in your comfortable La-Z-Boy chair and be entertained, you may well be barking up the wrong tree. If you’re a passive rather than an active reader you’ll be quickly lost—you have to be intellectually sharp and attentive. Sometimes the narrative lines may seem like a tangle of wool requiring unravelling, but the ultimately delightful process is more engaging than frustrating, more rewarding than daunting.
Relationships. Unfolding and fracturing in the city, out in the country, in outer space. New, old, newly failing, long-failing. William Faulkner said there’s nothing worth writing about except the human heart in conflict with itself, and the tensions, the traumas, the foibles and missteps reflect the grief and sorrow that accompany love.
Levine’s voice is distinctive; once you know it, you’d recognize it anywhere, among intelligent, interesting, insightful writers who entice you with possibilities, and surprise you again and again with their skill and imagination. Exquisite phrasing, unusual takes on time, place, love, and life. The full embrace of the first person point of view, and the present tense. More seemingly messy than structured or controlled—in other words, more like kaleidoscopic views of life itself.
You will be moved, you will be struck by the phrasing and clever imagery and evocative details. Surprised by the departure from conventions, the playing fast and loose. Let go of your expectations. Let the words and sentences and all they cleverly and carefully convey wash over you. Enjoy this fine writing from this exceptional writer.
January 4, 2026
this just was not for me
September 1, 2025
Gorgeous language, beautiful characterization, really interesting and varied settings, very thoughtful writing.
November 18, 2025
On November 10th, 2025, I attended the Author Talks event on zoom that's held by JHU. The author was Elise Levine, moderated by Susan Edwards and Karen Houppert and Natalie Cross in attendance. The purpose of the event is to have a discussion with Elise Levine about her book “Big of You”, a collection of short stories, some of which are interconnected with others.
When I read the book, I was reminded of The Great Gatsby - flowery language with an air of surrealism. Like her writing consisted of a sentence that hooked the reader into certain sense that told of setting, before elaborating on that sense with flowery language. It was very poetic, and in some stories served to amplify the sadness that I felt about the characters. While not my preferred style of writing, it served its purpose. Levine is a master of this technique that I feel I do not want to try more than touching.
Levine always writes in first-person, and her stories are character-driven to the extreme. In the case of her second short story in the sequence, I wondered what the millenia-old creature was that was the narrator. So when I had the chance of asking during the zoom event, I did. I asked how she imagined that creature to be, because it was so vague that it could fit any mythology, but at the same time I didn't want to pin my assumption of the creature onto it if I was wrong. She replied that she imagined it to be a merman. These are the exact notes I took of her describing the creature, I typing as fast as I could:
"She imagined it as a merman kind of creature, shrunken in size cause it’s so old. With a fishlike tail, more amphibian, with legs and a spine that once had spikes fifty feet tall. He’s grandiose, he’s big in self-deception. Scaly, dusty, but his lips are snarled. He believes he’s still frightening people. He believes he is ferocious, and we understand that, but he’s no longer that creature. He’s at the mercy of the owner at the roadside attraction. There’s room for empathy towards him."
I think the way she portrayed him is interesting and her writing is a good reflection of this character. I'm glad she answered the question - it was the one most bothering me, as I like to know the concrete specifics of a story and otherwise I was thinking the creature a dragon.
I also wanted to know Levine's stance on morality regarding incest, because of the stories in her collection that featured it. While the author gave an answer to the question - "the morality is doubly complex", she said, describing how the narrator feels about the sister that was her best friend and the sister's brother - I didn't feel like she actually answered the question. How did she decide upon this story twist?
In a fit of reading between the lines, I think she answered this by talking about how her ideas come to her. I am putting this in my own words, but her ideas seem to cling to her like dust via static electricity, gripping at her and building up, bits of dust into mounds into anthills, from wherein she then unleashes the story onto keyboard and paper. Someone gave this phrase during the session, "she writes like she knows how to start but not to stop", and I think that's apt. She writes and researches for the character, not the story - because the story is character-driven. And by doing so, she transforms her syntax into character personality, weaving the professionalism of the character into the formality of her sentences and words. When I say it's like The Great Gatsby, I don't mean it lightly.
I imagine if I were to be a fan of this kind of writing, I would have learned immensely today. What I can say I learned is the performance of public reading - how one actor really builds their bit, becomes and sells their character. She reads calmly, coolly, without stutter, with space for oxygen and softness for thought. A lesson in how one should read their works: like bringing writing to life. I learned from her the technique of writing as an observer, how syntax can portray character as easily as the details that embody writing. She also doesn't read from the start of the book, teaching that these kinds of readings can really take place whenever is most apt in the writing.
She did have a writing group - two, actually - in her life that helped her immensely, which reinforces the idea that having one is quite neat. Overall, if or when I were to join a writing group, I might need some diversity in writing techniques that she has exemplified today. I certainly appreciate learning that.
When I read the book, I was reminded of The Great Gatsby - flowery language with an air of surrealism. Like her writing consisted of a sentence that hooked the reader into certain sense that told of setting, before elaborating on that sense with flowery language. It was very poetic, and in some stories served to amplify the sadness that I felt about the characters. While not my preferred style of writing, it served its purpose. Levine is a master of this technique that I feel I do not want to try more than touching.
Levine always writes in first-person, and her stories are character-driven to the extreme. In the case of her second short story in the sequence, I wondered what the millenia-old creature was that was the narrator. So when I had the chance of asking during the zoom event, I did. I asked how she imagined that creature to be, because it was so vague that it could fit any mythology, but at the same time I didn't want to pin my assumption of the creature onto it if I was wrong. She replied that she imagined it to be a merman. These are the exact notes I took of her describing the creature, I typing as fast as I could:
"She imagined it as a merman kind of creature, shrunken in size cause it’s so old. With a fishlike tail, more amphibian, with legs and a spine that once had spikes fifty feet tall. He’s grandiose, he’s big in self-deception. Scaly, dusty, but his lips are snarled. He believes he’s still frightening people. He believes he is ferocious, and we understand that, but he’s no longer that creature. He’s at the mercy of the owner at the roadside attraction. There’s room for empathy towards him."
I think the way she portrayed him is interesting and her writing is a good reflection of this character. I'm glad she answered the question - it was the one most bothering me, as I like to know the concrete specifics of a story and otherwise I was thinking the creature a dragon.
I also wanted to know Levine's stance on morality regarding incest, because of the stories in her collection that featured it. While the author gave an answer to the question - "the morality is doubly complex", she said, describing how the narrator feels about the sister that was her best friend and the sister's brother - I didn't feel like she actually answered the question. How did she decide upon this story twist?
In a fit of reading between the lines, I think she answered this by talking about how her ideas come to her. I am putting this in my own words, but her ideas seem to cling to her like dust via static electricity, gripping at her and building up, bits of dust into mounds into anthills, from wherein she then unleashes the story onto keyboard and paper. Someone gave this phrase during the session, "she writes like she knows how to start but not to stop", and I think that's apt. She writes and researches for the character, not the story - because the story is character-driven. And by doing so, she transforms her syntax into character personality, weaving the professionalism of the character into the formality of her sentences and words. When I say it's like The Great Gatsby, I don't mean it lightly.
I imagine if I were to be a fan of this kind of writing, I would have learned immensely today. What I can say I learned is the performance of public reading - how one actor really builds their bit, becomes and sells their character. She reads calmly, coolly, without stutter, with space for oxygen and softness for thought. A lesson in how one should read their works: like bringing writing to life. I learned from her the technique of writing as an observer, how syntax can portray character as easily as the details that embody writing. She also doesn't read from the start of the book, teaching that these kinds of readings can really take place whenever is most apt in the writing.
She did have a writing group - two, actually - in her life that helped her immensely, which reinforces the idea that having one is quite neat. Overall, if or when I were to join a writing group, I might need some diversity in writing techniques that she has exemplified today. I certainly appreciate learning that.
December 2, 2025
an exceptional balancing act between broad tonal range and cohesive theme
January 11, 2026
Playful set of stories with varied voices, striking some affecting notes.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews