The Big Man's Daughter

by Fitzstephen, Owen
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ISBN: 9781645060192
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Overview

The Big Man's Daughter by Owen Fitzstephen continues the story of the characters first introduced in Fitzstephen's previous novel, Hammett--characters based on the "true" figures who served as inspiration for Dashiell Hammett's ragged cast of misfits in The Maltese Falcon. This time, the story revolves around Rita Gaspereaux, the Big Man's eighteen-year-old daughter, the only character whose fictional doppelganger is left unaccounted for at the end of Hammett's classic novel. So what happened to the "real" girl?

It is 1922. Suddenly "orphaned," Rita Gaspereaux must now navigate alone the criminal world of her murdered father and his newly imprisoned associates, all the time haunted by insistent tales of a blackbird statuette reputed to possess otherworldly, wish-fulfilling powers. Fortunately for Rita, she learned much about surviving on the fringes of decent society from her con-artist father. But did she learn enough? What helps young Rita to cope with the greed, cruelty, and darkness around her is her almost obsessive reading of fiction, particularly the novel she possesses (and is possessed by) at the time of her father's death. This book-within-the-book, a source of escape and solace for the blossoming young con-artist, is called Dorothy G., Kansas and tells the story of an 18 year-old Dorothy Gale (from The Wizard of Oz), as she leaves her aunt and uncle's farm in Kansas for the big city, specifically New York and Paris. The two young women couldn't be more unalike--Rita being worldly and deeply cynical, Dorothy being innocent and trusting. But as the story proceeds the two lives become entwined in intriguing, ultimately meta-fictional ways. The haunting conclusion is breathtaking.

  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Author: Fitzstephen, Owen
  • ISBN: 9781645060192
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 8.10 x 0.50
  • Number Of Pages: 184
  • Publication Year: 2020

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