Review
Tiffany Baker's first novel,
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, strikes
the reader as both familiar and unique. Its small-town setting and quirky
characters conjure up the writings of Fanny Flagg and John Irving.
Baker's voice is distinctive, however, and the book contains more than a few
surprises that will keep readers entertained from start to finish. The
first-person narrative style strikes the perfect tone for the novel, and Baker's
prose is insightful and descriptive.
"Sometimes I think I collect souls to make up for the ones I've lost
over the course of my life – the string of disappearances that started
with my mother are spread outward like a crow's wing, darkening
everything beneath it. Sometimes it's possible to see misfortune coming
and prepare for it, I guess, but most of the time, when a person...
Beyond the Book
Acromegaly
Truly Plaice, the protagonist of
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, is
referred to as a "giant" even as a child. It is not until mid-way through the
book that a physician provides the name of the disease that afflicts her:
Acromegaly.
Acromegaly comes from the Latin
acron, for extremity, and
megas,
meaning large. It was originally known as "Pierre Marie Disease" after the
French neurologist who first correlated the clinical and pathological findings
in 1886. The disease is rare, affecting about one in every 20,000 Americans.
The underlying cause is an over-secretion of growth hormone by the
pituitary gland. In 90% of acromegaly cases, this is due to a benign tumor on
the pituitary gland called a...
