Little Big Man | Techniques

Little Big Man Techniques

Although Berger's novel is apparently a loose and episodic narrative, it is in reality modeled on the more sophisticated achievements in the picaresque form, from Fielding and Smollett in the eighteenth century through Huckleberry Finn and various twentieth century descendants of the genre.

Crabb's narrative, despite its multitude of episodes and occasional digressions, is actually a highly artful and unified whole.

Particularly helpful in establishing the tone and credibility of the work are the foreword and epilogue by Ralph Fielding Snell, who is purportedly the editor of the narrative, which he claims to have taken in oral transmission with a tape recorder. Snell, "a man of letters," is a minor character of no importance except for his relationship to Crabb, and his appearance in the frame established for the narrative is exploited for a series of rich and amusing ironies.

Spiteful and quarrelsome, impotent...
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