Published On: 06.05.17 | 

By: Alec Harvey

‘Big Fish’ author Daniel Wallace returns to Birmingham with ‘Extraordinary Adventures’

bigfishfeature

Ewan McGregor and Alison Lohman were among the stars of "Big Fish," the 2003 movie based on Daniel Wallace's novel. (contributed)

Nearly 20 years have passed since Daniel Wallace’s debut book, “Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions,” took the world by storm.

The book, about a young man reconciling his relationship with his larger-than-life father, became a popular movie directed by Tim Burton in 2003 and, in 2013, a Broadway musical.

Two decades later, that’s what Wallace is best-known for, and he’s fine with that.

Author Daniel Wallace grew up in Birmingham but has lived in North Carolina for 25 years. (Photo/Iman Woods)

“There are a lot of writers who have published six books, which I have, and people don’t know any of them,” says Wallace, who grew up in Birmingham and will be there Tuesday night for a signing of his latest novel, “Extraordinary Adventures.” “I’m basically a mid-list literary writer, and that’s not the sort of thing that generates a lot of interest in the bigger world. I wouldn’t be upset if another book overshadows it, and I would be fine if one doesn’t.”

Wallace’s latest began life as a series of short stories about Edsel Bronfman, a quiet man living a fairly quiet life in Birmingham. That’s where Wallace went to grade school and high school (Birmingham University School, which became the Altamont School), and it’s no coincidence that Edsel is a lot like the man who created him.

“It’s how I used to be, sort of shy and reserved, unwilling to insert myself into a larger group of people, second-guessing myself, really polite,” Wallace says. “I understand him because he is essentially a version of me.”

The short stories and Edsel Bronfman “became kind of an obsession” for the author, who is the director of creative writing and the J. Ross MacDonald Distinguished Professor of English Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I could put him in any kind of circumstance and know how he would react. It’s the first real character-based book that I’ve written. He’s on every page and in the spotlight, and everything that happens either is done to him or happens to him.”

Wallace had started writing the Bronfman stories as he finished his last book, 2013’s “The Kings and Queens of Roam.” He had the idea to turn them into a book, so he put them together chronologically. Still, the stories, one after another, were a bit choppy.

“Once I started melding the stories, I needed a through-line, so I came up with an idea,” Wallace says. The idea? Edsel wins a trip to Destin and has 79 days to come up with a companion to travel with.

“The offer motivates him to break out of his shell,” Wallace says. “That’s the through-line that hooks the story.”

Though three or four years might pass between novels released by Wallace, the author says he stays busy.

“I write a lot of different things, including short stories and essays,” he says. “I don’t feel like people need a book a year from me.”

One thing he doesn’t do is write to top “Big Fish,” the kind of thing he knows might happen only once in a career.

“I don’t plan my writing,” he says. “It just happens, and then I follow that story. I’m kind of at the mercy of what happens when I’m at the computer. I can’t formulate a story that might become something other than a story. The writer who thinks in those terms is going to write a bad book.”

Daniel Wallace will sign copies of “Extraordinary Adventures” at the Alabama Booksmith, 2626 19th Place South, Homewood, on Tuesday, June 6, at 5 p.m.