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Nice Big American Baby:
Bunditz's collection of stories is deliciously addictive
By Kelly Skinner Splash! Magazine
It's that time of the year when things begin to change. The leaves are falling, the days are shorter, and the nights are colder and longer. We keep our eyes focused on the ground and force ourselves on getting through just a few more weeks of work before the holidays can snag hold on us. We just have to get through all of the pumpkin pies and before we know it, it'll be warm again. Such a serious, deadly time of the year it can be, which is why it can't do anyone any harm to add a little bit of color to their lives.
It has been over a year since Judy Budnitz released her story collection, Nice Big American Baby, but as I've said, color is something that all of us need every once in a while (especially on bitter days). A good fairy tale never really goes out of style.
Budnitz's storytelling style is in link with the likes of Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands) and Roald Dahl (Matilda); both famous for their magical (and dark) stories that appeal to people of all ages. There may be a point in all of our lives for us to stop believing in Santa Claus, I agree with this. But this rule does not apply to all things associated with the make believe world. Old does not
 | | Nice Big American Baby Published by: Alfred A. Knopf, February 2005 Grade: A for quality storytelling that inspires gasps, groans, sighs, and laughs. |
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equal serious
or boring, Budnitz's collection makes us all believers again.
The stories contain a sort of daring and oddness that may be a bit alarming on first appearance. There is a story about an island of mothers, a story about a color changing baby, a story about an artist in charge of painting an absolute leader's portrait. All of the stories are in themselves a revitalization to the lost imagination. These are stories that you can hold in your hand and stare at for hours because they are so beautifully strange.
Though they may seem at first to be slightly distasteful, irrelevant, or fantastical; upon second glance Budnitz's hope, bitterness, and ideologies rise with resonance.
Sure, a farm that imprisons salesmen may seem a bit out there, but it is the unusualness of this setting that allows Budnitz to properly throw her punches at consumer society's obliviousness. She has a knack for the short story and the American tradition and though many of Budnitz's stories
provide a haunting view on American society, they are not without hope. These are stories for the reader and the thinker that is willing to sit down for a meal of anecdotes so fantastic that he asks for seconds and thirds and fourths until he becomes a fiction glutton.Nice Big American Baby is as addicting as any Marlboro cigarette, Nike tennis shoe or 20 oz. Coca Cola and it's just as American.
As it comes closer to the time of year when fires become appropriate in the fireplace (or at least excusable in the case of Gulf Breeze and Pensacola); a good book with some personality is sometimes the best resort after a long day.
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