The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

I have a theory about the author of this book: I think he has been a reader all his life and has always dreamed about writing a novel. He had several plot lines in mind, and then in his mid- forties he finally started writing. Rather than choose one of the plots, he decided to combine them in one book.

The plot goes this way: Edgar and his parents continue the work of dog breeding and training started by his grandfather, with the goal of creating a special kind of dog, with the intelligence and understanding necessary to make decisions. By the way, Edgar is mute, not deaf but he cannot speak, so he communicates with his parents and the dogs in sign language. This section has much information about dog training and examines the bond between Edgar and his special dog, Almondine, with a portion written from the dog's point of view.

And then Edgar's long-absent uncle (his father's brother) comes back to the area, and it soon becomes apparent that the brothers do not get along. Edgar's father dies suddenly, possibly of a brain aneurysm, but later his ghost appears to Edgar and intimates that he was murdered by his brother. Just four months later the uncle moves in with Edgar and his mother and becomes her lover. Edgar does not know what to do--does he trust that what he saw was actually his father's ghost? He decides to enlist some confederates to re-enact the crime to see how his uncle reacts. The reaction prompts Edgar to confront his mother, but in a heightened emotional state he accidentally kills a busy-body family friend. Does this sound familiar? That's right--it's Hamlet. The one startling (and unintentionally funny) difference is that the re-enactment is done, not by traveling players, but by dogs that Edgar has trained.

Then comes a wilderness adventure portion, as Edgar flees with three of his dogs. During his travels he gains understanding of himself, his dogs, and their relationship. He has supernatural visitations and is befriended by an unlikely ally before deciding to return home.

The rest of the book is back to Hamlet.

So Wroblewski has written a modern rehash of Hamlet (with dogs), a wilderness and coming-of-age tale (with dogs), a supernatural story (with ghosts and oracles), and a dog story (with almost-human dogs). In the process he ripped off Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, and even Stephen King.

And, unbelievably, it works quite well, because the author is a more-than-competent writer. He has lovely descriptions, good characterization, and moves the plot along nicely. Even after I realized that I already knew the basic plot, I was interested to see how he interpreted it into modern day. It's a long book, but it reads very fast. I can see why it became a best seller. I am a late reader to this, since it has been out for a good while and has already been picked by Oprah! I raced through it, but I will not read it again.

By the way, the role of Ophelia is taken by the dog Almondine--another (perhaps unintentionally) funny bit.