Bookshelves are bursting with great stories

Tag : flat edger

Edgar Sawtelle, the son of two dog trainers, is born mute, and heevolves a language all his own, even as he listens to life swirlaround him. His story is an inspired riff on the tale of Hamlet,for Edgar must decide on a course of action when his father diessuddenly and he suspects his Uncle Claude of the crime. When asecond tragedy follows hard upon the first, Edgar leaves home,going into the woods with his dogs, surviving with them and forthem.
This novel takes us deep into the northern Wisconsin landscape,encloses us in the world of farm and family, house and barn, manand dog. And the dogs themselves are characters we come to love --the mysterious Forte, as much legend as dog; the matriarch,Almondine; the wonderfully named puppies -- Essay, Tinder and Baboo-- who accompany Edgar when he runs away.
"From the moment they opened their eyes, the dogs were taught towatch and listen and trust," Wroblewski writes. "To think andchoose. This was the lesson behind every minute of training. Theywere taught something beyond simple obedience: that through thetraining all things could be spoken."
The Sawtelles make of their dogs a kind of art, dogs that aresimply the best of their kind, with a distinctive way of looking attheir owners, a kind of understanding that passes beyond mereaffection. The Sawtelle dogs also pose a kind of mystery, one Edgarmust grow into and answer to.
This novel has a kind of old-fashioned grandeur; it proceeds at aleisurely and expansive pace for the length of its 562 pages. "TheStory of Edgar Sawtelle" is a story about enduring our greatgriefs, fulfilling our serious responsibilities. When I finishedit, I couldn't put it down -- literally. I held it close to myheart for a long time, unwilling to leave this world, these people,their dogs, behind.