by Daniel Wallace
(bio and other books)
In Watermelon
King, Daniel Wallace takes us back to Ashland, Alabama, the setting
for his first novel, Big Fish. We visit the town through Thomas
Rider, an eighteen-year-old boy, searching the town of his birthplace,
in the hopes of learning about his mother, Lucy and ultimately learning
about himself. By talking with the townspeople, however, Rider gets
more than he bargained for. He learns the truth about his mother and
her role in Ashland’s demise. Even more, he learns the disturbing truth
about
Ashland
and its strange ritualistic traditions of fertility, better known as the
crowning of the Watermelon King at the Watermelon Festival.
While Thomas
does not take these stories of the Watermelon King tradition seriously,
the townspeople do and he quickly finds himself at the center of
Ashland’s symbolic ceremony that, according to the townspeople, allows
the fertility of their crops to continue—and without their crops,
especially watermelons, the town has nothing.
Watermelon King
is an offbeat and colorful look at the absurdity of some
traditions, as well as a look at society’s contradictory views on sex,
and how a community, especially a small southern community, often
defines individuals, rather than allowing individual to define
themselves. Wallace does a brilliant and seamless job of weaving these
themes through the story.
Part I of the
novel is a series of character sketches. Through their distinct voices
they tell us the story of Lucy Rider, and the history of Ashland.
Wallace is at his best in this part. The pacing is careful and the
voices are lively and entertaining. We learn about Iggy Winslow, the
town idiot and how Lucy teaches him to read, and saves him from the
humiliation of being made Watermelon King. We meet Carlton Snipes, the
Watermelon Festival’s Committee Chairman, and we learn the consequences
of his inability to forgive Lucy Rider for what she did to Ashland’s
tradition twenty years ago.
The absurdity of
the festival ritual is a bit over-the-top and may distract some readers
from the otherwise thoughtful points made on society and traditions. The
story's strength lies in the author’s ability to move the timeline,
maintain mystery and reveal secrets at just the right moment.
In addition, Wallace carefully crafted the story
of Thomas Rider searching for information about his mother and his past,
but the element of Thomas Rider's father does not seem to be as well
thought out, nor, in the end, as convincing. Nonetheless, Watermelon
King is highly entertaining, beautifully paced, and worth reading.
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Also see our
interview of Daniel Wallace.
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