In 1782 London, an Irish giant and a Scot anatomist separately try to understand life: the former through stories, the latter through dissections. The Giant dreams of rebuilding a fabled Ireland; the doctor dreams of cutting apart the Giant.

The Giant, O'Brien offers the tantalizing hint of an idea, hovering just out of reach and never quite steady, that the dual pursuits of O'Brien and John Hunter parallel one another in their particulars: a search for immortality, an end justifying its grisly means, and the unpredictable intrusion of their lives into their art. But I'm less interested in The Giant, O'Brien as a novel than as a collection of incredible lines. I wish I could eat every sentence in this story. ( )

Mantel was such a confident writer. I love her books and have read eight (now nine) of her dozen novels. [The Giant, O'Brien] is historical fiction set in the 1700s about, you guessed it, a giant. Mantel sets up a story between the Giant and John Hunter, a medical scientist who experiments on the living and the dead.

While I appreciated the writing and characters and Mantel's willingness to get sort of dirty and explore the gross in this novel, it wasn't my favorite of hers. ( )

With her two Man Booker prizes, I suppose that Hilary Mantell is the reigning queen of historical fiction. The Giant, O'Brien is an earlier work of hers and much less sweeping than the Cromwell novels that have made her name.

The book is set during the Enlightenment and concerns Charles O'Brien, an Irish giant who travels to London with some friends to exhibit himself and make his fortune. O'Brien is a sensitive soul with far more altruistic motives han his agent and their friends.

The giant comes to the attention of John Hunter, an anatomist who craves possession of his remains. After a meeting with O'Brien, Hunter divines that the giant is dying, and seeks to inveigle his companions into handing over the giant to him after he dies.

The Giant O'Brien is readable enough, but is a pretty ordinary tale with somewhat stereotypical characters. Mantel's giant is certainly an interesting character, but her account of his life is somewhat thin and much more could have been made of this and of his relationship with Hunter, another under-developed character. This is a story that needs more depth and plot than the 200-odd pages that Mantel gives it. ( )

This is one of those books where from the very first sentences you know it's going to be a solid read. Good writers have this sense of confidence that beams from the pages. Not to say that this is an easy read. Frequently I had to re-read sentences or look up events and expressions. Most of the time when an author attempts to write a tale tightly based on facts you end up with a litany of events but no story. Not this one, it's full of main stories, sub stories, side stories, which is remarkable for such a small book.

A word of caution, if you have a weak stomach or simply do not want to read about the dregs of the 18th century then I would pass this one by. I did read it and I'm someone who does not enjoy the graphic approach to historical immersion. Then again the book was so captivating it was worth it. ( )

I found this a great story with the lives of two main characters, the giant and his doctor, interwoven in an intersting a thoughtful way. Subsequently having read The Knife Man, the biography of John Hunter who was the model for Hilary Mantel's doctor in this novel I came to a better appreciation of the historical aspects of the novel. I also appreciated the author's ability to maintain a clear focus for the story on the two primary characters. In retrospect this novel is rising in my estimation. ( )