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The Watermelon King
After the death of his grandfather, Thomas Rider heads for Ashland, Alabama, to uncover the truth about his parents, discovering a bizarre place whose fate is intertwined with that of their watermelon crop as well as the mysteries of his own identity. By the author of Big Fish. Reprint.
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 26, 2003
19 people are currently reading
607 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Wallace
91 books449 followersDaniel Wallace is author of five novels, including Big Fish (1998), Ray in Reverse (2000), The Watermelon King (2003), Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician (2007), and most recently The Kings and Queens of Roam (2013).
He has written one book for children, Elynora, and in 2008 it was published in Italy, with illustrations by Daniela Tordi. O Great Rosenfeld!, the only book both written and illustrated by the author, has been released in France and Korea and is forthcoming in Italy, but there are not, at this writing, any plans for an American edition.
His work has been published in over two dozen languages, and his stories, novels and non-fiction essays are taught in high schools and colleges throughout this country. His illustrations have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Italian Vanity Fair, and many other magazines and books, including Pep Talks, Warnings, and Screeds: Indispensible Wisdom and Cautionary Advice for Writers, by George Singleton, and Adventures in Pen Land: One Writer's Journey from Inklings to Ink, by Marianne Gingher. Big Fish was made into a motion picture of the same name by Tim Burton in 2003, a film in which the author plays the part of a professor at Auburn University.
He is in fact the J. Ross MacDonald Distinguished Professor of English, and director of the Creative Writing Program, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his alma mater (Class of '08). He lives with his wife, Laura Kellison Wallace, in Chapel Hill. More information about him, his writing, and his illustrations can be found at www.danielwallace.org and www.ogreatrosenfeld.org.
He has written one book for children, Elynora, and in 2008 it was published in Italy, with illustrations by Daniela Tordi. O Great Rosenfeld!, the only book both written and illustrated by the author, has been released in France and Korea and is forthcoming in Italy, but there are not, at this writing, any plans for an American edition.
His work has been published in over two dozen languages, and his stories, novels and non-fiction essays are taught in high schools and colleges throughout this country. His illustrations have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Italian Vanity Fair, and many other magazines and books, including Pep Talks, Warnings, and Screeds: Indispensible Wisdom and Cautionary Advice for Writers, by George Singleton, and Adventures in Pen Land: One Writer's Journey from Inklings to Ink, by Marianne Gingher. Big Fish was made into a motion picture of the same name by Tim Burton in 2003, a film in which the author plays the part of a professor at Auburn University.
He is in fact the J. Ross MacDonald Distinguished Professor of English, and director of the Creative Writing Program, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his alma mater (Class of '08). He lives with his wife, Laura Kellison Wallace, in Chapel Hill. More information about him, his writing, and his illustrations can be found at www.danielwallace.org and www.ogreatrosenfeld.org.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
December 1, 2017
Daniel Wallace undoubtedly has a great imagination. His stories are written like sophisticated fairytales; more complex and therefore more meaningful, engaging, and rewarding.
The Watermelon King takes place in the same city Big Fish was, Wallace’s best known work, mostly due to the phenomenal motion picture version. Ashland, Alabama is best known for its Watermelons. At least historically. Once upon a time. Before our protagonist’s mother, Lucy Rider, came into town, with an open mind. Something the Southerners happen to find appalling. Why change their traditions? How dare some stranger come and open their minds to new ideas? They like the way things are. I really liked how the novel was divided into two parts; how this division was done- ingeniously interweaving the two points of view (Ashland’s citizens and Thomas’s).
**** Spoilers ****
At first, all of them find Lucy’s personality magnetic. They fall in love with her, each for their own reasons. The women find her mesmerizingly different; a new friend and new fun. The men, of course, cannot turn a blind eye to her unparalleled beauty. Lucy returns their affections. She has this way of making each one of them feel as if she has chosen them as her favorite. Even the town retard finds his way into her heart. In fact, some say he most of all. When she discovers Iggy’s illegitimacy, she spends hours of her day teaching him how to read.
Everything is great until Lucy finds out the traditional of all traditions, the one that ensures the growth of watermelon in Ashland. Every year, at The Watermelon Festival, the oldest and most loved tradition in all of Ashland, the oldest virgin in the city is paraded in ceremony and the forced to consummate with one of three selected Queens. Finding this understandably cruel and wrong, Lucy claims that she has evidence that Iggy is not The Watermelon King; she was the one who took his virginity. Due to Iggy’s ugliness and retardation, she is hardly believed, but the rules state that they must wait it out for evidence of her claims. Or evidence to the contrary. The Watermelon Festival but two weeks later, there is no festival that year. That year, the watermelons suffer. And all of a sudden, all of Ashland turns against her. Nine months later, her baby is born. She manages to have a friend, Anna, rescue her son by surreptitiously taking him out of town to her father’s. Even more appalled by Lucy’s actions, she is shunned. In every way, this is the end of her.
The rescued baby is Thomas. Thomas Rider. His story is examined in the second part of the novel. His family, as far as he is concerned, is Anna and his grandfather. Thomas’s grandfather is a pathological liar (maybe by choice), creating fictional answering for everything from mundane questions to those more serious like Thomas’s beginnings and in his career as a real estate agent. He is the top selling agent around, almost entirely due to the stories he tells his clients regarding previous tenants, in order to have them believe that they would be able to, for example, channel the spirits of the deceased or be able to strike it rich from oil on the land. In this way, his grandiose stories serve as a vessel for Wallace’s imagination.
When Thomas is of age, with Anna’s blessing, he returns to his birthplace and begins the process of finding himself, finding out who he is. After learning the story of his mother from various sources, he is told that The Watermelon Festival can begin again, now that he has returned; they always knew he would, that it was only a matter of time. As a virgin, he, of course, is to be The Watermelon King. Although he is aware he can simply leave town, something compels him to stay; to see it all out and let his destiny unfold.
As is not always the case, I found the ending well orchestrated. Iggy’s sacrifice, paying his debt to Lucy, was not a good thing, but inevitable in a way. Thomas finally begins to fall in love- also, fittingly, with a young Lucy named after none other than his mother. Like the princess and her prince riding into the sunset, the two of them escape the clutches of Ashland under the cover and distraction of the fire Iggy started. The End.
The Watermelon King takes place in the same city Big Fish was, Wallace’s best known work, mostly due to the phenomenal motion picture version. Ashland, Alabama is best known for its Watermelons. At least historically. Once upon a time. Before our protagonist’s mother, Lucy Rider, came into town, with an open mind. Something the Southerners happen to find appalling. Why change their traditions? How dare some stranger come and open their minds to new ideas? They like the way things are. I really liked how the novel was divided into two parts; how this division was done- ingeniously interweaving the two points of view (Ashland’s citizens and Thomas’s).
**** Spoilers ****
At first, all of them find Lucy’s personality magnetic. They fall in love with her, each for their own reasons. The women find her mesmerizingly different; a new friend and new fun. The men, of course, cannot turn a blind eye to her unparalleled beauty. Lucy returns their affections. She has this way of making each one of them feel as if she has chosen them as her favorite. Even the town retard finds his way into her heart. In fact, some say he most of all. When she discovers Iggy’s illegitimacy, she spends hours of her day teaching him how to read.
Everything is great until Lucy finds out the traditional of all traditions, the one that ensures the growth of watermelon in Ashland. Every year, at The Watermelon Festival, the oldest and most loved tradition in all of Ashland, the oldest virgin in the city is paraded in ceremony and the forced to consummate with one of three selected Queens. Finding this understandably cruel and wrong, Lucy claims that she has evidence that Iggy is not The Watermelon King; she was the one who took his virginity. Due to Iggy’s ugliness and retardation, she is hardly believed, but the rules state that they must wait it out for evidence of her claims. Or evidence to the contrary. The Watermelon Festival but two weeks later, there is no festival that year. That year, the watermelons suffer. And all of a sudden, all of Ashland turns against her. Nine months later, her baby is born. She manages to have a friend, Anna, rescue her son by surreptitiously taking him out of town to her father’s. Even more appalled by Lucy’s actions, she is shunned. In every way, this is the end of her.
The rescued baby is Thomas. Thomas Rider. His story is examined in the second part of the novel. His family, as far as he is concerned, is Anna and his grandfather. Thomas’s grandfather is a pathological liar (maybe by choice), creating fictional answering for everything from mundane questions to those more serious like Thomas’s beginnings and in his career as a real estate agent. He is the top selling agent around, almost entirely due to the stories he tells his clients regarding previous tenants, in order to have them believe that they would be able to, for example, channel the spirits of the deceased or be able to strike it rich from oil on the land. In this way, his grandiose stories serve as a vessel for Wallace’s imagination.
When Thomas is of age, with Anna’s blessing, he returns to his birthplace and begins the process of finding himself, finding out who he is. After learning the story of his mother from various sources, he is told that The Watermelon Festival can begin again, now that he has returned; they always knew he would, that it was only a matter of time. As a virgin, he, of course, is to be The Watermelon King. Although he is aware he can simply leave town, something compels him to stay; to see it all out and let his destiny unfold.
As is not always the case, I found the ending well orchestrated. Iggy’s sacrifice, paying his debt to Lucy, was not a good thing, but inevitable in a way. Thomas finally begins to fall in love- also, fittingly, with a young Lucy named after none other than his mother. Like the princess and her prince riding into the sunset, the two of them escape the clutches of Ashland under the cover and distraction of the fire Iggy started. The End.
March 20, 2025
Ah, yes. The classic racist-southern-small town-annual-virginal-sacrifice festival tale.
Absolutely bizzare.
Absolutely bizzare.
January 18, 2015
This novel, set in the small, southern town of Ashland, creates an atmosphere of fable and tall-tale that’s very similar to the one that imbues Big Fish with a sense of magic.
Though the beginning was something of a slow burner, I enjoyed the second half of the book very much and found myself shirking other duties in order to read the last few chapters. The cast of characters is both charming and unnerving. The ideas that Wallace plays with are ones that run deep – identify, family, tradition, sexuality. Despite the thematic gravity and sometimes very dark turns in the story, he handles the narrative with a light hand that keeps you, the reader, from feeling weighted down by the pain and grief that runs through the story.
Despite the many fanciful turns in the events of the novel, the characters seemed very real. Wallace’s characterization is subtle and stretched out over a series of brief encounters that make up the first half of the book as the protagonist, Thomas Rider, interviews citizens of Ashland, the place of his birth, about his mother. Though certainly not “normal” by most standards, you can almost believe that a place like Ashland might exist … and the Watermelon King, too.
Hal Jacobs of the Atlanta Journal, Constitution said it well.
“In The Watermelon King, Wallace hits all the right notes of magical realism, creating a world where the supernatural fits alongside the ordinary, where storytellers stretch the plausible, and terror, fear and violence lurk below the surface.”
Originally posted as part of a weekend edition on the writing blog, Live to Write - Write to Live.
Though the beginning was something of a slow burner, I enjoyed the second half of the book very much and found myself shirking other duties in order to read the last few chapters. The cast of characters is both charming and unnerving. The ideas that Wallace plays with are ones that run deep – identify, family, tradition, sexuality. Despite the thematic gravity and sometimes very dark turns in the story, he handles the narrative with a light hand that keeps you, the reader, from feeling weighted down by the pain and grief that runs through the story.
Despite the many fanciful turns in the events of the novel, the characters seemed very real. Wallace’s characterization is subtle and stretched out over a series of brief encounters that make up the first half of the book as the protagonist, Thomas Rider, interviews citizens of Ashland, the place of his birth, about his mother. Though certainly not “normal” by most standards, you can almost believe that a place like Ashland might exist … and the Watermelon King, too.
Hal Jacobs of the Atlanta Journal, Constitution said it well.
“In The Watermelon King, Wallace hits all the right notes of magical realism, creating a world where the supernatural fits alongside the ordinary, where storytellers stretch the plausible, and terror, fear and violence lurk below the surface.”
Originally posted as part of a weekend edition on the writing blog, Live to Write - Write to Live.
September 25, 2019
I would have entered this before but couldn’t remember the author name. Loved this book so much, always felt it should have been made into a movie. Spooky.
September 23, 2023
What the fuck did I just read? I was supremely uncomfortable for the majority of the book, and I almost didn't finish it. The only part I really enjoyed was when they burned the town down at the end, that was so satisfying! But the entire concept of the book was a town that justifies and mandates the raping of young men, and that's disgusting. I have no idea where Wallace came up with this, and I frankly don't ever want to meet this man. I do not recommend this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2024
Siempre es refrescante leer a Daniel Wallace, su inventiva es a la par divertida, inocente y un gran placer de leer.
July 11, 2017
DNF. I got about 40% in and just can't bring myself to finish it. I think this story had a lot of potential, has some interesting language, and I'm generally accepting of slow-burners, but this just didn't move fast enough for my taste or have gripping enough characters to sell me, even close to the halfway point of the book. I picked this book up because I'm a huge fan of Big Fish (both the book and movie), and because I loved/still love the cover design of my edition. Watermelon cults and magical realism? Yes please. I liked the premise, I just think the novel format wasn't the right home for it, in my opinion. This would be an excellent short story, with just a few (or even one) narrator in the vein of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" or Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery". As a short story, I think this would make a chilling literary piece that could be picked apart in a higher education lit class like the best of them. But as a whole novel? I'm personally not convinced.
I'm still open to experimenting with Wallace's other work, and still love the masterpiece that is Big Fish, but for now I'll accept this book as "not for me," and that's okay.
I'm still open to experimenting with Wallace's other work, and still love the masterpiece that is Big Fish, but for now I'll accept this book as "not for me," and that's okay.
September 30, 2021
I read Big Fish, Daniel Wallace's best seller this month too. I found the two stories similar in that both stories are based on fable and tall tales told by one character. While in Big Fish, it's the whole story, it's only in the one part (the story is broken down into 4 parts) of Watermelon King. I felt like I was reading a repeat in parts and I can't understand why an author would do same in two stories. It was also kinda weird that this story is also based in a made up town of Ashland, Alabama and the people are simple and don't like change.
This time Ashland is known for it's watermelons. There's a newbie in town and her name is Lucy Rider. Many people adore her, especially the men who thinks she's the most beautiful women they have encountered. The women who don't are jealous of her.
The town's upcoming Watermelon Festival is approaching and everyone is getting ready for the yearly event. It's been tradition for generations. Everything is going as planned until Lucy finds out how the Watermelon King is chosen and what he has to do to earn it.
It's 18 years later and Lucy's son, Thomas returns to Ashland. His grandfather has told him about Ashland through fable and tall tales. Thomas returns because he wants to see where he was born, where his mother had died and find out the truth. But the people of Ashland have a different idea. They see Thomas as the chosen one, to restore their beloved town and their watermelon reputation.
This time Ashland is known for it's watermelons. There's a newbie in town and her name is Lucy Rider. Many people adore her, especially the men who thinks she's the most beautiful women they have encountered. The women who don't are jealous of her.
The town's upcoming Watermelon Festival is approaching and everyone is getting ready for the yearly event. It's been tradition for generations. Everything is going as planned until Lucy finds out how the Watermelon King is chosen and what he has to do to earn it.
It's 18 years later and Lucy's son, Thomas returns to Ashland. His grandfather has told him about Ashland through fable and tall tales. Thomas returns because he wants to see where he was born, where his mother had died and find out the truth. But the people of Ashland have a different idea. They see Thomas as the chosen one, to restore their beloved town and their watermelon reputation.
February 21, 2024
Thomas scopre in età quasi adulta di essere figlio di una persona speciale, ma lo viene a sapere dai racconti degli artefici del suo destino.
Il re dei cocomeri è una bella storia, raccontata bene nonostante la particolarità della narrazione ( la storia è divisa in 3 parti raccontate in modo differente l'una dall'altra), non ci si annoia anzi, le pagine si divorano, si crede di sapere dove si và a parare e poi ci sono piccoli colpi di scena. Di Wallace conosco la storia di Big Fish nonostante abbia visto solamente il film, ma l'idea in sé mi sembrava geniale e in questa storia ci ritrovo molto sia lo stile che i personaggi (voglio sottolineare che la città è la stessa).
Consiglio a chi vuole affrontare una lettura spensierata.
Il re dei cocomeri è una bella storia, raccontata bene nonostante la particolarità della narrazione ( la storia è divisa in 3 parti raccontate in modo differente l'una dall'altra), non ci si annoia anzi, le pagine si divorano, si crede di sapere dove si và a parare e poi ci sono piccoli colpi di scena. Di Wallace conosco la storia di Big Fish nonostante abbia visto solamente il film, ma l'idea in sé mi sembrava geniale e in questa storia ci ritrovo molto sia lo stile che i personaggi (voglio sottolineare che la città è la stessa).
Consiglio a chi vuole affrontare una lettura spensierata.
December 3, 2020
Several people have said, Mr. Wallace should have used the short story for for this one. I couldn't agree more. This would have been one wild ride in short form. However, it is sometimes difficult to condense a tale that comes to you in such a large strain of characters and characters they are, indeed. I'd love to read each one do a monologue about their town or just themselves, that would be interesting. Great way to spend two afternoons. Plus who could say no to this cover version I have, so it now has a space on my shelves with cute covers facing out.
March 19, 2018
An 18 year old returns to his birthplace to learn of the mother he never knew.
Fave quotes: "There is so much for them in the world and yet they refuse to see it…because they're small-minded. Because they come from small towns….people from small towns have small minds, small hearts and a small vision. Most of them anyway. There are exceptions. Some of the ones who get out are okay, but for the most, there's just no hope for them."
Fave quotes: "There is so much for them in the world and yet they refuse to see it…because they're small-minded. Because they come from small towns….people from small towns have small minds, small hearts and a small vision. Most of them anyway. There are exceptions. Some of the ones who get out are okay, but for the most, there's just no hope for them."
August 22, 2024
It's fun to go back to Ashland, Alabama, which is a part of one of my favorite books of all time, Big Fish by the same author. This book has a lot of the same imaginative wonder and southern charm, but also features a dark undercurrent that sometimes more directly peaks its head out. Small towns are incredibly charming and often incredibly frightening. I think this captured that really well while also having a unique structure. Good read.
January 15, 2018
Sometimes you read a book and think, "what in the world did I just read?". The way that the novel was put together led to a lack of cohesion and made it feel like two separate stories. The book wasn't bad it just wasn't ordered in a way that benefited the plot.
January 29, 2020
Una novela inesperada, sorprendente, como ya nos tiene acostumbrados Wallace habla de relaciones complicadas con los padres. Esos padres que no pueden admitir una verdad a secas, que dicen no mentir, solo adornar la realidad. Todavía estoy procesando algunos hechos.
October 17, 2022
This is a book by the same author that wrote Big Fish. I found this book to just be ok. It starts out with a guy interviewing people to find out about his mother. The second part gives the same interviews in a different perspective. The third part moves on from the first two.
June 25, 2017
Colorful and creative. A fast read.
August 24, 2018
Как-то не впечатлило. История про странные обряды маленького городка и как сами все испортили.
January 18, 2020
Creative author. A quick read. Different than my usual. Glad I did.
August 10, 2021
I didn't mind this book. Never boring, definitely original but confusing at parts. The style of it and the way the sections were divided up into different narratives, made it an interesting read.
Read
January 23, 2022Read this a long time ago
November 3, 2022
very strange story...but I enjoyed reading it.
February 16, 2023
“Sometimes the worst thing in the world is for a man to get what he wants.”
April 16, 2023
Masterful storytelling set in contradictory craziness of recent Deep South. Full of memorable characters, this just reminds me why I’m a Yankee!
June 28, 2023
Weird book lol slow but enjoyable
December 9, 2023
2.5
“There is so much for them in the world and yet they refuse to see it.”
“There is so much for them in the world and yet they refuse to see it.”
August 8, 2024
Very similar to Big Fish. Well written but seems a set up for redemption that never comes.
October 7, 2024
Big Fish. So BIG. TWK, so funky.
Don’t expect a lot of insight into human character. I’d put this alongside Jack Kerouac. A great ride.
Don’t expect a lot of insight into human character. I’d put this alongside Jack Kerouac. A great ride.
December 28, 2012
My CurledUp review: While the city of Ashland, Alabama, exists in the real world (it is seat of Clay County with a 2000 census population of 1,965), Daniel Wallace has been fictionalizing it and its people since his first novel, Big Fish. Providing as much a sense of place and background as William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, Ashland is a small-town suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, where folks either get out or die trying. In Wallace’s third and most recent novel, The Watermelon King, readers are invited back to Ashland for a new adventure of mythological proportion.
Divided into four distinct sections, The Watermelon King begins with our hero, eighteen-year-old Thomas Rider, setting out on the ultimate quest in search of the details of the life and death of his mother, Lucy, in the hopes that he will find out who she was and who he is. While not a terribly original premise, one mustn’t be discouraged. Wallace is becoming a master of modern-day mythology, and while the novel is a journey of discovery, there is plenty of symbolism and diversion to maintain one’s interest.
Thomas’ voice appears at first as an almost omniscient Greek chorus where our only real knowledge of him is as the recorder of each townsperson’s story. From the local innkeeper, realtor, festival committee chair, carpenter, and pharmacist to the town widow, negro, and idiot, the majority of the town’s and Lucy’s past as well as Thomas’ beginning is discovered, and the varied personalities are established.
Part Two brings the reader reminisces of Thomas’ childhood and is most like Big Fish, relying on the father/son (or in this case the grandfather/grandson) bond and on oral storytelling traditions. Some of the interactions between Thomas and his grandfather parallel imagery and symbolism in Wallace’s previous novels including Thomas’ grandfather’s tendency to stretch the truth a bit and a story about Thomas’ ability to communicate with the natural world and an extraordinary comfort level underwater. Wallace also details visits to a neighbor who traditionally gives Thomas a lucky dime as a Christmas gift, which shadows a different grandfather’s lucky penny found in Wallace’s second novel, Ray in Reverse. Both parallels serve as foundations in Wallace’s carefully constructed town of Ashland, where lucky coins symbolize the willingness and innocence of a child’s trust and faith in his loved ones, while stories of people moving easily between the human world and the natural world mirror old Greek stories where mortals are sometimes given the ability to walk among the gods.
As Thomas matures he begins to tire of his grandfather’s elaborate responses to every question Thomas asks about who he is and who his mother was. Thomas realizes, along with the reader, that although his grandfather has defined himself by his stories, it has also been his sole means of avoiding the bare truth. Thomas is forced to watch this tragic flaw become his grandfather’s demise:
“Because he was not made out of flesh and blood: he was made up mostly of stories, a high-wire act of a life balanced on the suspension of disbelief, and as he became deprived of his stories he actually seemed to shrink.”
Part Three thrusts the reader back into present-day Ashland, where the Watermelon Festival is getting under way. The festival, in which a virginal Watermelon King is chosen to sacrifice his virginity to ensure the fertility of the town’s soil and a healthy watermelon crop, bares resemblance to Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. Followed by a plethora of folklore, mythology, and biblical symbolism, the reader is lead down the path towards surprising, albeit somewhat open-ended, conclusions. Wallace’s use of biblical symbolism as we watch Thomas, the prodigal son, turn into a savior - complete with a last supper - and symbolic crucifixion contrasts with the heavily weighted symbolic comparisons of Lucy as a Greek goddess or an otherworldly siren whose Electra complex causes a swift fall and return the harsh realities of mortality.
Wallace’s multi-layered story unfolds as slowly and seamlessly as the petals of a flower and is immensely pleasurable to read. His foundation for Ashland is solidified in The Watermelon King, and fans of his work are surely looking forward to the next development in a world that is both recognizable and yet fantastic.
Divided into four distinct sections, The Watermelon King begins with our hero, eighteen-year-old Thomas Rider, setting out on the ultimate quest in search of the details of the life and death of his mother, Lucy, in the hopes that he will find out who she was and who he is. While not a terribly original premise, one mustn’t be discouraged. Wallace is becoming a master of modern-day mythology, and while the novel is a journey of discovery, there is plenty of symbolism and diversion to maintain one’s interest.
Thomas’ voice appears at first as an almost omniscient Greek chorus where our only real knowledge of him is as the recorder of each townsperson’s story. From the local innkeeper, realtor, festival committee chair, carpenter, and pharmacist to the town widow, negro, and idiot, the majority of the town’s and Lucy’s past as well as Thomas’ beginning is discovered, and the varied personalities are established.
Part Two brings the reader reminisces of Thomas’ childhood and is most like Big Fish, relying on the father/son (or in this case the grandfather/grandson) bond and on oral storytelling traditions. Some of the interactions between Thomas and his grandfather parallel imagery and symbolism in Wallace’s previous novels including Thomas’ grandfather’s tendency to stretch the truth a bit and a story about Thomas’ ability to communicate with the natural world and an extraordinary comfort level underwater. Wallace also details visits to a neighbor who traditionally gives Thomas a lucky dime as a Christmas gift, which shadows a different grandfather’s lucky penny found in Wallace’s second novel, Ray in Reverse. Both parallels serve as foundations in Wallace’s carefully constructed town of Ashland, where lucky coins symbolize the willingness and innocence of a child’s trust and faith in his loved ones, while stories of people moving easily between the human world and the natural world mirror old Greek stories where mortals are sometimes given the ability to walk among the gods.
As Thomas matures he begins to tire of his grandfather’s elaborate responses to every question Thomas asks about who he is and who his mother was. Thomas realizes, along with the reader, that although his grandfather has defined himself by his stories, it has also been his sole means of avoiding the bare truth. Thomas is forced to watch this tragic flaw become his grandfather’s demise:
“Because he was not made out of flesh and blood: he was made up mostly of stories, a high-wire act of a life balanced on the suspension of disbelief, and as he became deprived of his stories he actually seemed to shrink.”
Part Three thrusts the reader back into present-day Ashland, where the Watermelon Festival is getting under way. The festival, in which a virginal Watermelon King is chosen to sacrifice his virginity to ensure the fertility of the town’s soil and a healthy watermelon crop, bares resemblance to Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. Followed by a plethora of folklore, mythology, and biblical symbolism, the reader is lead down the path towards surprising, albeit somewhat open-ended, conclusions. Wallace’s use of biblical symbolism as we watch Thomas, the prodigal son, turn into a savior - complete with a last supper - and symbolic crucifixion contrasts with the heavily weighted symbolic comparisons of Lucy as a Greek goddess or an otherworldly siren whose Electra complex causes a swift fall and return the harsh realities of mortality.
Wallace’s multi-layered story unfolds as slowly and seamlessly as the petals of a flower and is immensely pleasurable to read. His foundation for Ashland is solidified in The Watermelon King, and fans of his work are surely looking forward to the next development in a world that is both recognizable and yet fantastic.
July 20, 2020
Nothing truly captures the American spirit like a down-home southern helping of watermelon with a side of virgin sacrifice. Daniel Wallace’s The Watermelon King revisits the fictional town of Ashland, Alabama, the setting for his novel Big Fish and seriously the most magical realism-charged town since Márquez's Macondo. If you’ve never read One Hundred Years of Solitude, shame on you. I hope ants carry you away and devour you. You probably don’t get that reference which only further proves the degree to which you suck.
The novel unfolds by way of folklore, tall-tale, and myth; accounts told by a smattering of small town characters reliving the glory days of Ashland’s legendary Watermelon Festival. Thomas Rider returns to the town of his birthplace searching for answers about his origins, and specifically, information on his mother, Lucy Rider. Through interviews with a number of the town’s colorful characters, he learns the truth about his mother and her hand in the demise of Ashland, a once thriving and prosperous town, now dusty, dry, and balls-hot. Seriously, this place sounds hella-miserable.
During the course of Thomas’s proverbial find-yourself-quest, he uncovers something extremely....interesting… about Ashland. Apparently, their crops depend on an odd, ritualistic fertility tradition that pretty much boils down to this:
1. Pick virgin guy
2. Gather a gaggle of single chicks
3. Select the soon-to-be exploited single chick that best fits with the soon-to-be-exploited virgin guy
4. Make them have sex in a field
Seed is sown. And so comes a new prosperous year for Ashland and its inhabitants (Pun Count: 2)
So, as you can probably discern, something goes horribly amiss with Lucy Rider and whatever happened has left Ashland, Alabama in a state of, “oh lawds, we used up all our virgins.”
Verdict?
There were a few turns of story that I wasn’t too sure of, one in particular that definitely threw me for a loop. I'm personally not so fond of this plot twist; it's really the only aspect of the novel that keeps me from loving it. Regardless, I promise it will be shocking at the very least. I'm pretty sure when I read it I said out loud, "bitch wha?"
So overall, I liked The Watermelon King. Wallace manages to create a world saturated in magical realism, always teetering on the edge of the real and fantastic while interweaving the two effortlessly. Every character is a story-teller, constantly playing with the improbable; forming a tale that is poignant and original but not without an element of violence coupled with fear that can’t be shaken.
By the way, those of you who have read Big Fish, or perhaps saw the movie; yes. The incredibly creepy swamp lady is still there, more fantastically, still alive, and just as charming as ever. Just consider yourself lucky if she doesn’t smash any watermelons at your feet because apparently that means you're the new Watermelon King. Or I guess you could consider yourself lucky since you'll likely be de-virginized sometime in the immediate future.
You shall get laid! So it is, and so shall it be.
The novel unfolds by way of folklore, tall-tale, and myth; accounts told by a smattering of small town characters reliving the glory days of Ashland’s legendary Watermelon Festival. Thomas Rider returns to the town of his birthplace searching for answers about his origins, and specifically, information on his mother, Lucy Rider. Through interviews with a number of the town’s colorful characters, he learns the truth about his mother and her hand in the demise of Ashland, a once thriving and prosperous town, now dusty, dry, and balls-hot. Seriously, this place sounds hella-miserable.
During the course of Thomas’s proverbial find-yourself-quest, he uncovers something extremely....interesting… about Ashland. Apparently, their crops depend on an odd, ritualistic fertility tradition that pretty much boils down to this:
1. Pick virgin guy
2. Gather a gaggle of single chicks
3. Select the soon-to-be exploited single chick that best fits with the soon-to-be-exploited virgin guy
4. Make them have sex in a field
Seed is sown. And so comes a new prosperous year for Ashland and its inhabitants (Pun Count: 2)
So, as you can probably discern, something goes horribly amiss with Lucy Rider and whatever happened has left Ashland, Alabama in a state of, “oh lawds, we used up all our virgins.”
Verdict?
There were a few turns of story that I wasn’t too sure of, one in particular that definitely threw me for a loop. I'm personally not so fond of this plot twist; it's really the only aspect of the novel that keeps me from loving it. Regardless, I promise it will be shocking at the very least. I'm pretty sure when I read it I said out loud, "bitch wha?"
So overall, I liked The Watermelon King. Wallace manages to create a world saturated in magical realism, always teetering on the edge of the real and fantastic while interweaving the two effortlessly. Every character is a story-teller, constantly playing with the improbable; forming a tale that is poignant and original but not without an element of violence coupled with fear that can’t be shaken.
By the way, those of you who have read Big Fish, or perhaps saw the movie; yes. The incredibly creepy swamp lady is still there, more fantastically, still alive, and just as charming as ever. Just consider yourself lucky if she doesn’t smash any watermelons at your feet because apparently that means you're the new Watermelon King. Or I guess you could consider yourself lucky since you'll likely be de-virginized sometime in the immediate future.
You shall get laid! So it is, and so shall it be.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2008
If I were to write one of those cheesy quotes for the front of books, my quote for The Watermelon King would be "Storytelling as storytelling should be!"
I picked up this book thanks to a suggestion on Things Mean A Lot, a book blog I've been checking out lately. The blogger there had nothing but good things to say about Daniel Wallace's writing and storytelling ability. And with such a glowing review how could I resist?
One of the actual cheesy quotes on the back of this book compared Wallace to Roald Dahl and I have to say I agree. I grew up reading Roald Dahl and loving the obvious imagination he put into his books. It's obvious Daniel Wallace has the same big imagination.
The Watermelon King plays out in Ashland, Ala., the world's biggest watermelon patch. However, after the arrival of one Lucy Rider and her desire to stop the archaic practice of naming a watermelon king, the watermelons stopped growing in Ashland. See, the problem Lucy had with the town naming a watermelon king was that it was based on a legend that went something like this:
The fertility of our land and the fertility of our people have always been intertwined. Fertility to us is everything. And so it has been our belief that no boy shall reach manhood with his virginity intact. If this were to happen, the land would dry up and we would have no more watermelons. So each year at the watermelon festival the oldest male virgin in town is chosen as the watermelon king. He goes out to a field where he is greeted by three females who take a handful of watermelon seeds from a bag. Whichever girl ends up with the golden seed is the one he sleeps with that night.
But Lucy Rider, new to their town, will have none of that, so when the king is picked that year, she says she's had sex with him and she' pregnant with his child. Within the week all of the watermelon field in town wither up and die.
The ensuing story is told by her son, who comes to the town to learn about his mother and hopefully find out who his real father is, which could be difficult considering every man in town is keen on taking credit for the deed. This book is fairly short and so fun I'd recommend it to just about anyone.
I picked up this book thanks to a suggestion on Things Mean A Lot, a book blog I've been checking out lately. The blogger there had nothing but good things to say about Daniel Wallace's writing and storytelling ability. And with such a glowing review how could I resist?
One of the actual cheesy quotes on the back of this book compared Wallace to Roald Dahl and I have to say I agree. I grew up reading Roald Dahl and loving the obvious imagination he put into his books. It's obvious Daniel Wallace has the same big imagination.
The Watermelon King plays out in Ashland, Ala., the world's biggest watermelon patch. However, after the arrival of one Lucy Rider and her desire to stop the archaic practice of naming a watermelon king, the watermelons stopped growing in Ashland. See, the problem Lucy had with the town naming a watermelon king was that it was based on a legend that went something like this:
The fertility of our land and the fertility of our people have always been intertwined. Fertility to us is everything. And so it has been our belief that no boy shall reach manhood with his virginity intact. If this were to happen, the land would dry up and we would have no more watermelons. So each year at the watermelon festival the oldest male virgin in town is chosen as the watermelon king. He goes out to a field where he is greeted by three females who take a handful of watermelon seeds from a bag. Whichever girl ends up with the golden seed is the one he sleeps with that night.
But Lucy Rider, new to their town, will have none of that, so when the king is picked that year, she says she's had sex with him and she' pregnant with his child. Within the week all of the watermelon field in town wither up and die.
The ensuing story is told by her son, who comes to the town to learn about his mother and hopefully find out who his real father is, which could be difficult considering every man in town is keen on taking credit for the deed. This book is fairly short and so fun I'd recommend it to just about anyone.
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