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Book Review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
shukween avatar reviewed on + 118 more book reviews


I chose this title because of the buzz about it....but like many recent Oprah selections, I was left unmoved by it. It relates the story of a hearing boy who cannot speak, and the adolescent issues of his reaction to his father's death, learning that his father's death was at his uncle's hands, and then, as icing, that his mother has 'taken up with' that very uncle. A troubling time for any young man, Edgar's solitary and internal natures make these events quite difficult for him to deal with. While I thought the story intriguing, I ended up feeling like the author had flitted back and forth between the adolescent reaction issues and the plot events and had not wrapped them up together by the end, or even as they played out.

This is a nice read and I enjoyed it; I thought the ending abrupt and unfinished.