The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a wonderfully written and inventive work of fiction. Do not let the fact that it was chosen by Oprah's Book Club set you off of it. Wroblewski's first novel is an intriguing story that weaves multiple (but very familiar) themes together with great skill, terrific prose, and gut wrenching emotion. Edgar Sawtelle is also fantastical in very interesting and compelling ways.
At its simplest, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a family story -- and as it has been said, each family is dysfunctional in its own ways. The Sawtelle family raises and trains a (fictitious) breed of dog whose reputation for companionship, courage, and comportment has made them popular and desirable. Edgar, born mute, is the only child and dog raiser and trainer-in-training for the family business set in the beautiful country of rural Wisconsin. Trouble comes when Edgar's paternal uncle, Claude returns to the farm and with the subsequent unexpected and sudden death of Edgar's father. At its most complex, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a rural American retelling of Hamlet with a bit of fantasy built in.
Wroblewski's prose is lyrical and detailed, lovingly crafted and a delight to read. One of the various small sub-stories within the novel is the art and science of naming the pups -- a job of heavy import and responsibility that falls for the first time to Edgar early in the story. Wroblewski's exploration of the meaning, the options, the seriousness and love and care that Edgar devotes to this task is a small wonder. I for one would not have thought that dog-naming would be a topic that held much interest. Wrobelski makes it fascinating and engaging.
Intertwined with the other details of dog-raising and training that Wrobelski makes interesting and even fascinating, he has also made the dogs into characters themselves. The litter of pups that Edgar gets responsibility for training (also his first go at this task) each develops real, individual personalities. Edgar's best friend, and a first-rate example of what the Sawtelle dog breed represents, is his companion Almondine. In a way that seems to fit the story, without being overly weird or fantastical, Almondine narrates a few chapters -- Wroblewski's use of the dog as observer of the human condition while not original, is very well done and believable. The reader comes to feel for Almondine as one would for a human character that was well drawn.
Of course, the idyllic existence is not to last. I give nothing away by telling you that the plot convention is that Edgar suspects Claude's nefarious involvement in Gar's (Edgar's father) unexpected death. When a well-developed but ultimately failed attempt to implicate Claude goes disastrously wrong, the mute Edgar takes to the wilds of Wisconsin with three yearling dogs. Wroblewski's ability to bring you close into the life of the family is equally well done as he describes how a young teenager and three spectacularly trained dogs can survive on their own in the woods of Wisconsin.
This book has marvelous touches. The description of Edgar's mother taking her "unusual" child to the local wise-but-strange old woman after having endured the long run of doctors with no diagnoses and no suggestions is but a glimpse of Wrobelski's weaving of the normal with the 20-degrees off normal and making it work. Later in the book there are interactions between the humans and an almost ephemeral stray dog that seems to appear and vanish. Wrobelski's painting of the rural Wisconsin environs - the wind, the rain, the sunlight are pictures painted with words.
This is a book worth reading for its wonderful use of language and its details of life. Upon my first reading of the book, I was angry with the ending. Upon reflection and with a couple of re-readings of the ending, I have come to appreciate what Wroblewski has created with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Remember how I describe the book at the beginning of this review. I encourage you to pick this up and enjoy it.
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