The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Book suggested by Missy, meeting hosted by Kelly.

This book came highly recommended by Missy's sister. It's the first book for this part-time author who is a computer engineer by trade. It was an Oprah Book Club selection. Mr. Wroblewski was born in 1959 and grew up on a farm in Wisconsin where they raised dogs. He feels there is a strong connection between dogs and people.This book had a vague writing style that had us interpreting the same paragraphs differently and wondering at times if we had read the same book. Some questions asked included how Almondine died and whether Trudy died at the book's end. We seemed divided on the answers.

The author put a lot of dark elements in the story, including poison, murder, storms, a mute main character, ghostly apparitions, and a crazy fortune teller. One reader pictured the whole story in black and white.

With many of us wondering about the value in reading a tragedy, Missy read us a profound quote by Franz Kafka: "I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us...We need the kind of books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us." David Wroblewski, the author, added to this quote during his interview with Oprah when he said, "It is only in times of great comedy and great tragedy that, for a moment, our veils are lifted and we see life clearly."

Lori, Pat D., and Carol W. all strongly disliked the book, but Kelly, Judy, Carol M., Missy, and Pat S. all really liked it (until the very end).

Link to author's website: http://www.davidwroblewski.com/