Title: The Thunder of Giants Author: Joel Fishbane
Published: April 14, 2015
Genre(s): Historical Fiction
Page Count: 278
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:The year is 1937 and Andorra Kelsey – 7’11 and just under 320 pounds – is on her way to Hollywood to become a star. Hoping to escape both poverty and the ghost of her dead husband, she accepts an offer from the wily Rutherford Simone to star in a movie about the life of Anna Swan, the Nova Scotia giantess who toured the world in the 19th century.
Thus, Anna Swan's story unfurls. Where Andorra is seen as a disgrace by an embarrassed family, Anna Swan is quickly celebrated for her unique size. Drawn to New York, Anna becomes a famed attraction at P.T. Barnum’s American Museum even as she falls in love with Gavin Clarke, a veteran of the Civil War. Quickly disenchanted with a life of fame, Anna struggles to prove to Gavin – and the world - that she is more than the sum of her measurements.
This is one of those books I knew I had to read as soon as I heard the premise: historical lady giants! Seriously. The Thunder of Giants is a dual-perspectived historical novel about two extremely tall women and how their lives, separated by decades, intersect. Overall, I was impressed with the strength of Joel Fishbane’s storytelling and the way he didn’t rely solely on the uniqueness of his characters, though of course Anna and Andorra were a big draw. Even so, the story did get a little telenovela-ish towards the end, and while it was a satisfying conclusion, it was perhaps too sentimental.
The narrative, as I said, is split between two women, Andorra in the 1930s and Anna in the 1860s. Both are about 8 feet tall, and therefore have somewhat difficult lives as a consequence, though in different ways. Their lives intersect when a Hollywood talent scout asks Andorra to play the part of Anna in a film his wife is producing. Yet aside from this seemingly superficial connection of physical similarities, the two lady giants are both quite different, though by the end of The Thunder of Giants, their stories intersect much more completely.
I think it’s interesting that Fishbane chose to write about a both real historical figure and a fictional one in this novel. Anna Bates (née Swan) was a real woman who was born in Canada, came to New York to do shows for P.T. Barnum, then married another giant from Kentucky before settling permanently in a custom-built house in Ohio. Yet the novel’s other protagonist, Andorra Kelsey, is completely a product of the author’s imagination. On the one hand, I did enjoy the fiction Andorra’s story more of the two, but on the other hand, maybe I would have liked a story devoted entirely to Anna Bates, since she actually lived. I’m conflicted. I like Andorra, but did Fishbane need her in this novel to tell Anna’s story? It seems like the intersection between the two women is minimal and circumstantial, so it might have been better to just have one protagonist and skip the dual-narrative entirely. This is often my struggle with historical fiction featuring two storylines; it so often doesn’t seem necessary.
Obviously, though, I still enjoyed The Thunder of Giants. I think Joel Fishbane is a talented author, both in terms of prose and in research. The historical periods (both of them) were fully realized and immersive, and though the book isn’t brimming with detail, I still found that the setting and time were done justice. Additionally, the two protagonists were well-drawn and interesting, making their separate stories easy to follow along with and enjoy.
