This book has made a name for itself, becoming a best-seller last year, and ensuring an automatic interest in any other books Mr. Wroblewski may happen to write. He will probably get another out a bit quicker - this book supposedly took 10 to 15 years to write.
The book is about Edgar, who is a boy who cannot speak (but hears just fine) and is an only child somewhere in the wilds of Wisconsin. His parents raise dogs, and in their raising are not looking for the finest physical points or useful traits, but are trying to create a dog who is able to enter into communication deep enough with its master so that it brings knowledge to each enterprise – another mind, as it were, not just a helpmate.
This is a lovely idea, and the book largely works on the entrancing quality of this belief. Many who have spent time with dogs can attest to the companionship and the “depth of understanding” that seems to lie beneath the relationship.
Wroblewski can write attractive prose, and the challenges of Edgar shouldering his share of the work, when his father unexpectedly dies, absorb us as they absorb him. Then there are obstacles upon obstacles. His mother gets pneumonia, no one can help (why, we aren’t told) and things unravel until they have to ask his father’s brother to come help. This person’s villainy is hinted at, but never explained.
Halfway through the book, Wroblewski casts the father as the vengeful ghost in Hamlet. This device is hard to uphold (can Hamlet be 14?), and each plot turn seems like another wedge inserted to keep everything upright.
Suffice to say that you keep reading, hoping for something better, hoping for resolution. Wroblewski works his drama for all that it’s worth – whether he delivers or not is up to the reader.
No comments:
Post a Comment