Don't believe the hype or you, too, may be sucked into the lie that has made TSOES an "international best seller". Despite Oprah's Book Club recommendation and Stephen King saying he'll reread it, the truth is that this is an over-long, pointless and somewhat turgid tales that leaves you feeling cold.
The story is about young Edgar, only child in a family of dog breeders who is born mute. Why mute? I can only guess it's because Wroblewski couldn't be arsed writing dialog or using the " symbol. Edgar's muteness adds only annoyance to the story, plus an unhealthy detgree of unbelievability. But no matter, Wroblewski decided the little bastard was to be mute and that's all there is to it, pointless as the decision was.
Edgar lives an idlyic life raising dogs until Uncle Claude shows up. His father, Gar, and Claude fight a lot, Gar mysteriously dies, Edgar believes Claude was responsible but his mother, Trudy, shacks up with him nonetheless. After accidentally killing the vet (and father of the local cop), Edgar goes bush for a couple of months before returning for a showdown with Claude. And you ask yourself: Why? Why does Claude kill Gar? ops, gave it away!) Why did he even buy the poison in Korea in the 50s in the prologue in the first place? Why did Edgar go bush for so long? And why does it take 500 pages to cover this?
None of these critical plot points is explained, which is surprising when so many pages are given over to excrutiuating detail and plain drivel. The first 120 pages, for example, are taken up with family history and setting an idylic scene in which NOTHING HAPPENS.
In the end, the climatic showdown between boy and uncle turns out to be formulaic and the attempted heart-string puller of Edgar finally talking falls flat. And yet surprisingly this book was not too hard to read. Something made me keep turning the pages and I believe it was the belief that some of the questions raised would be answered.
They weren't. I wasted several hours of my life. Don't make the same mistake. 2/5
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