Giant (1952) - Edna Ferber

Written by Edna Ferber
Read by Courtney Patterson
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 48 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
Release date: 04-23-19
Publisher: HarperAudio

From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Ferber, Giant captures the essence of Texas on a staggering scale as it chronicles the life and times of cattleman Jordan “Bick” Benedict, his young society wife, Leslie, and three generations of land-rich sons during the first half of the twentieth century.

When larger-than-life cattle rancher Jordan “Bick” Benedict arrives at the family home of sharp-witted but genteel Virginia socialite Leslie Lynnton to purchase a racehorse, the two are instantly drawn to each other. But for Leslie, falling in love with a Texan was a lot simpler than falling in love with Texas. Upon their arrival at Bick’s ranch, Leslie is confronted not only with the oppressive heat and vastness of Texas but also by the disturbing inequity between runaway riches and the poverty and racism suffered by the Mexican workers on the ranch. Leslie and Bick’s loving union endures against all odds, but a reckoning is coming and a price will have to be paid.

A sensational and enthralling saga, Ferber masterfully captures the essence of Texas with all its wealth and excess, cruelty and prejudice, pride and violence.

Giant was the basis of the epic 1956 classic film starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson.

Comments from readers –
I loved this book as a study of a marriage - East married to West, a thinking woman and a hard-working man and how they try to find a place of harmony in the land that he’s crazy about and she’s trying to fit herself into without loosing the woman that she is.

When cattleman Jordan “Bick” Benedict travels to Virginia to purchase a horse, he returns home to Texas with a naive tart-tongued young bride as well. With sweltering heat, a husband that works like a cowhand, and an evil old-maid sister-in-law to contend with, Leslie enters a nightmare of a new lifestyle finding some shameful abuses to Mexican humanity, and a BBQ menu from hell (calf brains served in the head…..ewwwww!) and that’s just the start.

This story is about TEXAS. Everything is big in TEXAS. In TEXAS we do things differently, and it’s like a whole other country. TEXANS are like no other people. People not from TEXAS couldn’t possibly understand what it means to be from TEXAS. Did I mention TEXAS? Okay, I’m done now.

While it deals with some serious issues, racism being one, mostly it reads like a cross between an encyclopedia and a tour-guide book about Texas. There are pages and pages going on about the history of Texas, breeding cattle, Texas, Mexican workers, Texas, etc., then a few paragraphs where something actually happens, then back to the history lessons about Texas again! I confess I finally did a lot of skimming.