Over the past few days, I have spent more than a significant amount of time reading and re-reading Little, Big and The Manuscript Found in Saragossa for my final paper. While reading these novels again, I have come to see how much I truly missed in both of these novels. Before starting my paper, I had considered these novels to be among my favorites after just one reading. But now I am not sure if that level of praise is even enough for Crowley and Potocki. The depths of the stories and their implications for literature as a whole is astounding. I have been recommending these novels to all of my family this semester and I was planning on letting them borrow my copies. However, now I think that my Christmas vacation might be best spent reading them for myself again.

I have especially enjoyed going back through Little, Big. I am constantly amazed at parts that I missed or just did not understand their entire implications. It makes me a little sad that we were not able to spend more time working on this book because it is a novel that could have been explored throughout an entire semester and not everything would be revealed or understood.

The following quotation is my favorite from Little, Big. I honestly think that it could be one of the most wrenching and beautiful things that I have ever read in my life. The most depressing thing about it is that I do not even remember reading this section the first time that I read through this novel.

"He had fooled them. No matter what happened now whether he reached the place they set out for or didn't, whether he journeyed or stayed behind, he had his tale. He had it in his hand. Let it end: let it end: it couldn't be taken from him. He couldn't go where all of them were going, but it didn't matter, for he'd been there all along."  Smoky