The Thunder of Giants

In this book we meet two female giants Anna Swan who worked for PT Barnum during the civil war and Andorra Kelsey who in 1937 is discovered by a talent scout to play Anna Swan in a movie. This was a good story with sparse writing. I’d never heard of Anna Swan before and this was a fascinating look into her life. Some details of course changed for a narrative fiction story and I don't think Andorra existed but she was also an interesting woman.

Neither woman ever wanted to be a star they just wanted to be normal but when you are over 7 feet tall normal is something you will never be. Both stories will break your heart but there is hope and with hope there is life.

The story of Andorra’s mother is tough to read and may go a bit far into gross factor but it is what she had to live with her entire life. Anna Swan being a real person means you can research her real life which was neat because I found a lot about her online ( of course this is fiction so many facts are different).

This book grabbed me right away and was hard to put down so it made it a quick but enjoyable read. There were times the story between these two women flowed nicely and other times it struggled a bit, but this was a good story and that made up for any of the issues with the flow or sparse writing.

Some of the side characters didn’t seem fleshed out as much as one would hope but it also made everyone flawed in some way or another, being normal sized doesn’t mean your life is all flowers and sunshine, and even if both of these women envied their normal sized friends they didn’t have it all together any more than Anna or Andorra. I thought Anna was a very strong woman who really did what she wanted and lived her life on her own terms Andorra tried to do this but things held her back.

I did enjoy this story and I thought this was a very good debut and would read other books this author comes out with.

3 ½ Stars

I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

Andorra Kelsey has always been an oddity because of her size. At 7'11 and over 320 pounds, her height has terrified those who haven't met her. After meeting an agent who wants to bring her to Hollywood, Andorra might just become a star. Set to play Anna Swan, a PT. Barnum wonder and giantess, Andorra leaves behind her father and children to escape the memory of her dead husband and to change being stared at for her height to being stared at for other reasons.

The Thunder of Giants alternates the stories of Andorra Kelsey and Anna Swan to the point that it is often hard to tell who is being discussed until the time period is mentioned. The characters are intentionally similar, down to their strength and frustrations with being kept in the small world they have been offered. Andorra is named for the land where she was born and was a child born of disgrace. Anna was born in Nova Scotia a few years before the American Civil War and thus finds herself growing up with Gavin Clarke, a man who goes to war in the Americas and becomes an oddity himself when his arm is removed.

Joel Fishbane's prose flows beautifully between the two stories and his descriptions bring Anna and Andorra to life. Though both women are born under extraordinary circumstances, women will understand the dual nature of their lives. Both Anna and Andorra strive to be something bigger, something greater than the label they have been given. Despite their sizes, they also still struggle against the small cage of womanhood during both the Civil War era and the early days of Hollywood.

The Thunder of Giants is a beautiful work of modern fiction, but it should be mentioned that Anna Swan was in fact a real giantess during the days of PT Barnum. She died of tuburculosis just before her 42nd birthday. I appreciate that Joel Fishbane has done his best to let her remain a human being and treat her characterization with respect in this novel.

The Thunder of Giants is available April 14th, 2015 from St. Martin's Press.

Fascinating historical fiction. Loved the story of Anna Swan the giantess and how she found success.

This novel was truly one of a kind and definitely a strong debut. Fishbane cleverly mixes the tales of a true historic figure (Anna Swan) and a woman of his own invention (Andorra Kelsey). Both are giants (nearly 8 feet tall), both are immigrants (from Canada and Andorra), both live through war (the Civil War and the Great War), and, most importantly, both struggle to find a measure of normality (in vocation, love, and life in general) in a world that is not kind to those who are different, particularly women. I was impressed at how well-drawn both characters were, especially considering their creator is a man and of average size. I wanted to give this more than 3 stars, but my reading theme of the year is greediness - I just wanted more! There were so many subjects and emotions touched upon that I would have loved to see unpacked more completely. Ultimately, the book just felt too short to contain two larger-than-life ladies. Ah, but the promise! I look forward to Fishbane's next endeavor.

Absolutely not at all what I had expected, this novel was part history, part creation, and all good. What a clever turn and inventive way to weave the real world into a "real" world! I've investigated now for Anna Swan, and I am ever so curious about gigantism than ever before. I look forward to more from Mr. Fishbane!

Equal parts sweet and sad, Fishbane has paired present to past smoothly enough it seems a mirror. Now, if only students could feel the same.