Miracle Life of Edgar Mint: A Novel
by Brady Udall
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Read in May, 2002
recommended to Savanna by:
An English professor at the college I was about to attendrecommends it for: anyone, but especially to people who get bored with the kinds of books assigned in English classes.
This is an absolutely delightful, enthralling novel. I read it during my last month in high school--in hardcover. It all starts when the protagonist gets run over by a mail truck on his reservation as a small child. More specifically, his head gets run over. That sounds like an awful place to start, but it's perfect.
I have distinct memories of reading this book during calculus, after we'd taken the AP. In those last weeks of the year, we were still required to go to calculus class even t...more
I have distinct memories of reading this book during calculus, after we'd taken the AP. In those last weeks of the year, we were still required to go to calculus class even t...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2008
This is the first book I have read set on an Apache reservation. (I have only read and visited the Cherokee so far.) The characters are sooo real. They are lovable even with their horrible faults. I felt like I was a fly on a wall watching people. It is so hilarious and yet depressing. And, the ending has an ironic surprise.
Some of my favorite quotes:
"The thing I fear most is forgetting, so I have become a hoarder, a pack rat..." (I certainly identify with this :).)
When describ...more
Some of my favorite quotes:
"The thing I fear most is forgetting, so I have become a hoarder, a pack rat..." (I certainly identify with this :).)
When describ...more
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Read in February, 2008
Certainly the best book I've read in some time. A year or so ago a woman put the book in my hands and said, read this; it's amazing. I filed it away, so innondated as I was with the pile of books-to-be-read. Then a few weeks ago I attended a booksellers conferance and a speaker on handselling referenced it, saying he loved the book so much that he and his bookstore sold 400 in hardcover and 1,100 in paperback. That is a lot of love.
So, I sat down with Edgar Mint one afternoon and didn't mo...more
So, I sat down with Edgar Mint one afternoon and didn't mo...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in February, 2008
I guess the best way to put this is to say that the things I liked about this novel make up for the things I didn't.
Interesting protagist. Excellent pace. Funny when it should be and kind of depressing when it shouldn't. For the most part, Udall should be given credit for making so much that doesn't seem like it could ever happen seem like a natural progression in the life of his characters.
By the end, however, I was feeling a bit of the old "Oh, come on!" by the novel's turn o...more
Interesting protagist. Excellent pace. Funny when it should be and kind of depressing when it shouldn't. For the most part, Udall should be given credit for making so much that doesn't seem like it could ever happen seem like a natural progression in the life of his characters.
By the end, however, I was feeling a bit of the old "Oh, come on!" by the novel's turn o...more
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Read in June, 2002
Growing up with the Udalls, I had the good fortune of meeting Brady Udall, which obviously gave me the keen interest to read both Edgar Mint and Letting Loose the Hounds (which I would also recommend). This book intertwines the best and worst of emotions. Some parts of the book make Edgar's life so pathetically hopeless, it's actually funny, but at other parts, it's truly sad and depressing. There are parts I didn't like (despite a five star rating) but I had to ask myself what I would do if I w...more
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Read in January, 2007
Just when I was about to pass this off as yet another fictional memoir of a tortured and disturbed childhood, with the complete absence of stabilty and love, crazy characters and gratuitous 'shocking' descriptions of torture, sex, and cruelty...by the time I reached the end, I was proven dead wrong. Not your garden variety tale of triumph over adversity, that's for sure...
Wonderfully written in uncomplicated prose, appropriately developed characters, and metaphors abound. Some inaccuracies r...more
Wonderfully written in uncomplicated prose, appropriately developed characters, and metaphors abound. Some inaccuracies r...more
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Read in January, 2001
"If I could tell you one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head." It is with this harbinger that Brady Udall reeled me in to his engaging novel.
From his onset, Edgar Mint has not been granted many favors in life. He is a half Apache Indian born into the most unfortunate situations in life. Among other challenges, he is mostly orphaned and forced into a delinquent school for boys where he is harshly abused by many. Yet, his re...more
From his onset, Edgar Mint has not been granted many favors in life. He is a half Apache Indian born into the most unfortunate situations in life. Among other challenges, he is mostly orphaned and forced into a delinquent school for boys where he is harshly abused by many. Yet, his re...more
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recommends it for:
people that like the name Edgar
This book makes me feel like I'm coming out of a comma on a soap opera and I'm grasping the air while saying "Edgar? Edgar? is that you" and I know I should know him but I don't and I feel sad for realizing what is lost and I'm tormented with fragmants of recognition and I've already died and come back to life and been through 8 husbands and gone through 2 years of rehab due to my drug addiction and I can deal with all that but not this...not forgetting Edgar! Is he my son, my lover, a...more
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Read in January, 2005
This is a story about a Native American boy's growing up years. It's incredibly written, the author is very talented, and it's gripping and heart wrenching and powerful. The writing is so good that the scenes really come to life, which is wonderful except for some of the scenes I wish I could forget. It's hard to say if those scenes are gratuitous or necessary to the plot, I haven't decided, but they are very vivid. When I think back on the book, it's those scenes I remember and see, which I fee...more
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I was deeply enthralled from the first sentence. How could you NOT be when you read, "...when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head." Edgar Mint spent most of his life trying to find his family and in the process found himself. He also managed to find out that his life was and would always be tied to the mailman who happened to run him over. You just have to read this book! It is filled with characters that will both warm and chill your soul, as seen by the ever-endea...more
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At first I was terrified to read this book- as someone who has worked with Child Welfare and been to tribal lands to discuss What Will Happen, I didn't want to really know What Could Happen. I am so very glad that I read this- the book is full of a sense of wonder and magic that comes from believing that the world can be... good, despite all evidence to the contrary. Not a single minute comes off as unrealistic and I cannot believe that my friend didn't return my copy.
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I am re-reading this b/c I suggested it to one of my mommy friends and she said it was sad and poorly written. It is one of my favorites, so I thought I'd make sure. Yup, still is a favorite. It's sad, but very uplifting. And not unorganized. The varied voices are there for a reason. Edgar can't remember his life before a certain point, so he can't refer to himself in the first person. Plus, I think it's pretty well researched and I like that in a book.
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Read in December, 2006
recommends it for:
Iowa Workshop Fans
Brady Udall has a way of sucking you into a story. He moves quickly and artfully from one tense, dramatic scene to the next. This novel is nothing if not a page turner. Udall knows just how to paint a sympathetic character and isn't afraid of putting his characters in harms way. It's a sad story with a charming ending. The story pays off and is well worth the drive. Take the time to pick this one up. It's a winner.
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Read in January, 2002
This book was fascinating to me as it told the story of a young native american boy whose life was pretty terrible. He should have died as a boy, but lived. He spent time in a boy's school for native americans and lived for awhile with a Mormon family in a small farming town in Utah. I loved reading about this boy's life, but the story got pretty rough in parts, so I'm not sure I would recommend it to all my friends...
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Read in January, 2006
"If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head." I take as a good sign any first sentence that makes me laugh outloud but also suggests a gentle, underlying pathos, which perhaps I transpose onto it in retrospect. In any event, Udall's first novel is a delightful blend of humor and heartache, without being saccharine or precious.
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
yes
i heard about brady udall while listening to this american life (one of my favorite radio shows in the whole wide world!!!) his story was so entertaining that i decided i needed to buy one of his books.
i really like the miracle life of edgar mint. it is a sad story but the characters are so realistic that you cant help but create a connection (good or bad) with all of them.
i really like the miracle life of edgar mint. it is a sad story but the characters are so realistic that you cant help but create a connection (good or bad) with all of them.
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
women
Picked this one up in the bargain bin and it sat on my shelf for 2 years or so before I read it. I can't believe I waited that long. It would probably make a good book club book. I'm not sure what I would compare it too, though. I've heard some reviewers would compare it to John Irvings books but since I've haven't read much Irving I'm not sure. Anyway, it was very enjoyable.
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Read in January, 2003
The most brutal, hilarious, worth-while book ever. And the best first line I've ever read.
This would be one of my 2 books on a desert island. With A Prayer for Owen Meany being the other!
I half-hope, half-fear for the day they make this into a movie. Someone's bought the rights, but it's been on hold forever, waiting for the right team to make it, if we're lucky!
This would be one of my 2 books on a desert island. With A Prayer for Owen Meany being the other!
I half-hope, half-fear for the day they make this into a movie. Someone's bought the rights, but it's been on hold forever, waiting for the right team to make it, if we're lucky!
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I admit I can't remember much about this book at all. (I read it several years ago.) I do remember enjoying, it, though, especially because the settings reminded me so much of where I grew up. Brady Udall is a great writer (he does a lot of stuff for public radio now), so his newer stuff is definitely worth a read or listen.
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Potential for being fantastic, but ends of being sloppy. It took many a train ride across the Italian countryside to finish this book about a young Apache boy in search of a safer childhood. However he ends up in Mormon foster care and an Indian school where he loses his hide, but manages to make a Boo Radley-like friend.
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