LIFE, AND DEATH, AND GIANTS

RON RINDO is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He has published one previous novel, Breathing Lake Superior, and three short story collections. He lives in Pickett, Wisconsin.

“Straddling the Wisconsin of the Amish and “English,” Life, and Death, and Giants assays the limitations and temptations of the godly and the worldly. Ron Rindo has fashioned a small-town novel as magical and moral as a tall tale.” —Stewart O’Nan, author of Snow Angels and Songs for the Missing

“With Life, and Death, and Giants, Ron Rindo has performed literary magic. This is a remarkable, profoundly moving novel.” –Larry Watson, author of Montana 1948

“Like all the best tall-tales, legends, and folk stories, the size and skill of the hero matters to the narrative. But what matters more is the hero’s heart, and their willingness to sacrifice for a greater good to show their community and indeed, their country, what is possible, what is virtuous, what is best. The big beating heart of this novel is Gabriel Fisher, a 21st Century Paul Bunyan. But even more than Fisher is the book’s writer, Ron Rindo, who has crafted a novel that is remarkably generous, kind, and graceful. This is a novel that still believes in magic, goodness, and everyday heroes.” —Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and A Forty Year Kiss

“Ron Rindo’s deeply attentive and broadly generous novel, Life, and Death, and Giants, makes the sturdiest of stools out of its title’s three legs as it examines what happens when the mysterious interrupts the certainties we all cling to. Rindo reminds us, through his careful and loving prose, that the mysterious and the certain are always partnered, and if we choose to, if we pay close enough attention to ourselves and the worlds around us, and if we share the news of what we see, we may build our own sturdy stools, and step up, and discover the giant in us all.” —Karen Shepard, author of Kiss Me Someone and The Celestials

“Life, and Death, and Giants is an intriguing and alluring novel from beginning to end. The events are startling, sad, amusing, invigorating, and informative. Reading it is like meeting a family that you never knew existed and becoming close friends in a few weeks. Highly recommended.” —Jane Smiley, author of Lucky and A Thousand Acres

1. Reading is an important activity in this novel, beginning when Hannah Fisher discovers the tattered book of Emily Dickinson poems hidden in her mother’s storage chest. What does Hannah read at various points in the narrative, and how does this reading gradually influence her view of the world?
2. One obvious contrast in the book is between the self-denying anonymity and humility treasured by the Amish characters and the fame and popularity that comes to Gabriel when his athletic accomplishments are beamed around the world on the internet. How are these characteristics reflected and/or judged by the other characters?
3. There are other dualities present in the novel as well: faith vs. agnosticism, rural vs. urban life, a provincial view of the world vs. a more cosmopolitan view. How are these tensions dramatized, and what conclusions do the characters reach, if any, about the value and limitations of each?
4. The sports of baseball and football become important in the narrative as Gabriel grows up, and two of the narrators, Billy Walton and Trey Beathard, carry a deep love for those activities. What does their love of sports bring to the narrative, and does that love change at all in the course of the story (and if so, in what ways)?
5. Though most obvious in the character of Absalom Yoder, evil, and spasms of human cruelty, are present at various points in the story. How do the different characters understand the evil and/or hardship that alters their lives?
6. Though the novel’s primary focus is on Gabriel Fisher, it is also an ensemble story, narrated by multiple characters, all of whom also have their own narrative arcs. One way to consider this is to think of Gabriel as the sun, and the other primary characters as planets circling him. A simpler way to think about this is by invoking the dictum that the secret theme of all literature is change. How do their interactions with Gabriel’s extraordinary life and death change the other characters in the book?