The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
This was a powerful book about family-the love that exists and sustains and challenges, the secrets and jealousies that can tear apart. More importantly, with one exception The Story of Edger Sawtelle is by far the best book I have every read addressing the love between a boy and his dogs (the best being Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls which is to this day unrivaled in that category), or really to state it more broadly between a man and his animals. If Wroblewski didn't have Big Dan and Little Ann as role models, he managed to channel their spirits anyway. If you are not up for sorrow and sadness, don't embark on reading this one because it has both in spades. And, suprisingly, a ghost. Its also a testament to his writing that the main character was deaf and that was the least important thing about him. In some ways I'm torn on whether I actually liked the overall book-no spoilers here but I wasn't super happy with the ending. That said, Wroblewski can write-the man's prose is masterful and so just for the experience of living with his words for a few days, this book was certainly worth reading. In the final analysis, I found the overall book a little grim but I have to give it a solid #3 "I liked it very much". Following are some of the memorable passages and my impressions of each:
In writing of a dog on missing her "grand"master, he manages to convey the sense of the importance of each person's role in a family, and the importance of family itself:
"In her life she'd been nourished and sustained by certain things, him being one of them, Trudy another, and Edgar the third and most important, but it was really the three of them together, intersecting in her, for each of them powered her heart in a different way"... in his absence..."it was her sense of being alive that thinned by the proportion of her spirit devoted to him"
Did I not bawl like a baby when this happened:
"For a long time people kept appearing at the top of the path-trainers who had adopted yearlings, men whose voices had sped across the telephone line in conversations with Edgar's father-and Claude directed them along."
Of a mother reflecting on parenting:
"In a way, she thought, it was the only disappointing thing about having a child. She'd imagined he would stay transparent to her, be more part of her, for so much longer."
Of things I had never fathomed even existed (and of which I'll have to ask my aunt and uncle who used to run a dairy farm for confirmation that this is a real thing):
"You ever seen a cow magnet? Unbelievable. It looks like a giant metal bullet. You shove it right down the cow's throat and a year or two later it comes out the other end covered with nails, bolts, hunks of wire."
And of luck in vocation:
"And from the look on his face I could tell he was one of the lucky ones, one of those people who like doing what they are good at. That's rare. When you see that in a person, you can't miss it."
Rating? #3 Liked It Very Much
In writing of a dog on missing her "grand"master, he manages to convey the sense of the importance of each person's role in a family, and the importance of family itself:
"In her life she'd been nourished and sustained by certain things, him being one of them, Trudy another, and Edgar the third and most important, but it was really the three of them together, intersecting in her, for each of them powered her heart in a different way"... in his absence..."it was her sense of being alive that thinned by the proportion of her spirit devoted to him"
Did I not bawl like a baby when this happened:
"For a long time people kept appearing at the top of the path-trainers who had adopted yearlings, men whose voices had sped across the telephone line in conversations with Edgar's father-and Claude directed them along."
Of a mother reflecting on parenting:
"In a way, she thought, it was the only disappointing thing about having a child. She'd imagined he would stay transparent to her, be more part of her, for so much longer."
Of things I had never fathomed even existed (and of which I'll have to ask my aunt and uncle who used to run a dairy farm for confirmation that this is a real thing):
"You ever seen a cow magnet? Unbelievable. It looks like a giant metal bullet. You shove it right down the cow's throat and a year or two later it comes out the other end covered with nails, bolts, hunks of wire."
And of luck in vocation:
"And from the look on his face I could tell he was one of the lucky ones, one of those people who like doing what they are good at. That's rare. When you see that in a person, you can't miss it."
Rating? #3 Liked It Very Much
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