Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Nov 08, 2010

Joel rated it:

If there is a fictional trope I could probably do without it is the precocious child narrator. I can only read so many books about weirdly bookish children with a story to tell, or a life of destiny to live. And yet it seems like every time you turn around, there is a new one being trumpeted for its "unique, pitch-perfect voice," sometimes by me. Yeah, maybe I like some of these books (or not especially), and I'm even planning to read one soon that is over 1,000 pages long fergoshsakes More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

May 21, 2010

Ender rated it:

I love to be so pleasantly surprised by a book. Reading something like this is difficult, because I struggle greatly with obvious injustice, but there was the constant comfort of Edgar's attitude telling me that it was all okay.

I love the way there was so little happening, and yet so much happening at the same time. I loved the way Edgar seemed to be oblivious to so many little nuances of what was happening, yet, even though he was the story teller, the reader knew EXACTLY what w More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2011

Gwen rated it:

Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I must admit I was leery for a while, for my mind had no clue as to what little boys and young men think about. It was hard for me to get past the "initiation" type activities of school mates. This book was so intriguing, the author knows how to grab your attention, and equally important, how to hold it. As I read I always have questions and he answered them, all of them. I finally get to add something to my favorites shelf. I will definitely More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 17, 2008

Leighanne rated it:

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' More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2008

Aaron rated it:

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 no More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2011

Kristina rated it:

I started this book thinking it was going to be funny, probably because there is a quote on the cover that says "...fall down funny." It's not. It's sad. And horrible. And a little bit more sad and horrible. It portrays the life of a young boy who has a life filled with accidents and abandonment and abuse. All the things that made me cry for all the orphans in the world as a kid. But, in this case, they aren't real. It's fiction.

It is impossible for me as a reader to More...

0 comments like

Sep 11, 2011

Bembo rated it:

Edgar Mint is seven years old when the mailman's Jeep accidentally runs over his head, he is thought dead. But half-Apache Edgar, is taken to hospital where young Dr Barry Pinkley does not give up on him. When he later comes out of his coma he remembers nothing of his life (other fill it in for him), alone in the world he is happy living in the hospital until time for his discharge. Then packed off to a school for American Indian children his real troubles begin, but things look better when a Mo More...

0 comments like

Jun 23, 2011

Claudia rated it:

This is one of those few books that should not have any details disclosed about it - no spoiler alerts, no hints, no outlines or summaries. I would even vote to remove the descriptions from the back covers of every copy in existence. Here's why...

The beauty of this story comes from the reader's innocence and the display of curiosity and interest that occurs with every turn of the page. If I divulged even the tiniest detail, it would surely remove one of the magical sparks of this book, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2011

Meg rated it:

I think I want to give this more like 3.8 stars. This is the story of a half-breed Apache named...you guessed it...Edgar Mint. The book begins with Edgar, aged 7, being run over by a mailman and presumed dead. I liked the book, but for me, everything in it has been done just a bit better in another book - being a teenaged-Indian boy (read Sherman Alexie), life in a Mormon family where the wife is cheating (read Virginia Sorenson), the way boys torture other boys particularly in a boarding school More...

0 comments like

Jun 14, 2010

Sarah rated it:

I have been interested in Udall since I read a review of "The Lonely Polygamist", and decided I wanted to get a preview of his writing by reading "The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint." I wasn't disappointed.

This is an amazing book. I've read comparisons to "The World According to Garp", and I can see the similarities but while Irving's New England-based characters seem to almost become caricatures of themselves, I never felt that way with Edgar.

More...

0 comments like

May 29, 2010

Cindi rated it:

After reading a review of Udall's newest novel "The Loneliest Polygamist", I was intrigued, did a little research regarding the author and discovered his acclaimed novel "The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint".

Edgar Mint is an authentic and sympathetic character. He is lovable. I found myself rooting for him during all the unfortunate events of his young life. Following an accident in which seven-year-old Edgar's head is crushed by a mail jeep, Edgar is brought back to l More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 11, 2010

Kate rated it:

Edgar Mint's childhood mission is locating the mailman who ran over his head as a child. He wants to assure him that he's OK.
This mission is the focus of Brady Udall's The Miracle of Edgar Mint. The author's inspiration to write Edgar's story developed from something much less painful than having his head run over, although possibly equally as dramatic.

The peculiar story that gave Udall the framework to work was sparked when his then girlfriend, now wife, revealed she was dat More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 22, 2010

Denice rated it:

I picked this up as an audiobook from Audible.com because Brady Udall is going to be one of the featured speakers at The Festival of Faith and Writing for which I had registered. I'd not heard of the book nor the author, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Throughout the book, I wavered back and forth between, "Wow. I can't wait to hear what happens next," and "Good Lord, I can't listen to another minute of this." Being one who is not a big fan of profanity or flippan More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 16, 2010

Mimi rated it:

I started this story on the Amtrak trip back from Montreal, finishing ¾ of the book on that 10 hour journey. The rest took me one more day. Couldn’t put it down!

This is a 5-star tale of Edgar Mint, a young half-Apache whose earliest memory is waking up from a coma which resulted from the mailman running over his head when he was 7-years-old. Abandoned by his drunken mother and left-for-dead by all he knew, Edgar was an orphan left to fend for himself in the worlds of the substandard More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Mark rated it:

Edgar Mint is the neglected child of an abandoned Apache mother with alcohol addiction and many other problems. His story,told by himself and set mostly in Arizona and Utah, reminded me of Oliver Twist and David Copperfield but without any Victorian restrictions on profanity or sexual content. Mormon missionaries play an important role (and mostly positive) in the coming of age of Edgar. Having been a Mormon missionary, I was moved to read of Elder Turley and Elder Spafford's willingness to serv More...

0 comments like

Jun 18, 2011

Jessica rated it:

I decided to read this book after reading this author's latest book, The Lonely Polygamist, and finding it enjoyable. This one wasn't as good a read for me as the other, and it wasn't until more than halfway through the book, that I felt like it was the very same writing style and humor that had attracted me to this author. That said, the beginning wasn't bad, just different in style from the other book I'd read.

Edgar Mint is mainly a melancholy tale about the sad life of young Edgar More...

0 comments like

Oct 05, 2009

Chana rated it:

Edgar Mint is an Apache half-breed with an alcoholic mother and an absent father. After an accident, in which his head is run over by a mail truck, he lives in the hospital, then a brutal boarding school for a sad population of nowhere else to go Indian kids, then with a foster Mormon family. The story is so well-written that it feels very difficult to write a review, what can I add to this amazing story. I will say that it made me nostalgic for the time I spent in the Mojave desert as a child a More...

0 comments like

Sep 28, 2010

Justin rated it:

I was watching a friend’s house years ago, needed something to read and picked The Miracle Life Of Edgar Mint from their bookshelf. It became one of my favorites. I’ve loaned it out to people left and right out of my sheer excitement for the book. Somewhere between Udall’s deft use of the language and stunning characterization, Edgar Mint sings. The ups are way up and the downs are below zero and Udall never pulls a punch, perhaps on principle.

Given the quality of this story and More...

0 comments like

Jun 25, 2011

Kristen rated it:

I'd probably give this 3.5 stars, but it wasn't quite enough to convince me to round up to 4 (so I guess I should say 3.4 starts to keep things consistent mathematically). I read this book because of how much I enjoyed The Lonely Polygamist. There were elements of Udall's that I enjoyed in that book present in this one, but it didn't quite touch the same nerve.

Early on this book reminded me of one of my favorites - A Prayer for Owen Meany - and that might have been a downfall befor More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 12, 2009

Marvin rated it:

A charming book with a wonderful character, a young half-breed Apache somewhat reminscent of Owen Meany, & writing that reminded me of John Irving. In the opening sentence, we learn that Edgar's head is run over by a mail truck. He miraculously recovers (except that he is never able to write, so ends up pouring out his soul by typing profusely on his manual typewriter). The story is divided between the hospital where he recovers, the Indian boarding school where he's sent (& abused mercilessly b More...

0 comments like

Feb 24, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

Definitely not a book that I would have ever picked up myself. A great discussion book but "laugh out loud funny" as the cover says - not quite. I found the story itself appalling but the writing wonderful. All of the characters and stories were vividly brought to life by Udall, sometimes almost too much. I loved Art and definitely felt for Edgar and Cecil. I was confused by Barry and empathized with the Madsens.
I was confused by the switch from third to first person and bac More...

0 comments like

May 24, 2011

Kathrina rated it:

The best part of this book is meeting an exceptional character. It took about 100 pages for him to earn my trust, and then I loved him. Udall has constructed a rather over-the-top life experience that, through this character's eyes, makes sense. A great fictional approach to the challenges of male adolescent bullying and feelings of identity isolation and difference, this narrator is real and likable. If you like John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany or The World According to Garp, or Reif Larse More...

0 comments like

Dec 22, 2011

Christy rated it:

Edgar Mint is a "half breed" born to an alcoholic mother on a Native American reservation in Arizona. At the age of seven, a UPS truck runs over his head, and although he miraculously survivives the accident, it is only the beginning of a life of disasterous bad luck.
From a prolonged stay at a decrepit hospital, to the hadrships of living at an institutional boarding school for Native American children, to an awkward stint with a foster family, Edgar's life is filled with depred More...

1 comment like

Mar 02, 2011

Karen A. rated it:

How I wanted this one to go on. I was very sorry to let Edgar go. Edgar, a half breed, whose head is crushed by a mail truck at the young age of seven, is one of the most compelling innocents to come along for some time. I would put this character up with Pip. Again, Mr. Udall, uses the American West, specifically Arizona and Utah, as his back drop. But really it is his intimate knowledge of the nooks and crannies of this deceptively empty desert that serves as an unforgiving shaper of litt More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 26, 2009

Joanna rated it:

If 1/2 stars were an option, I would give this one 3.5 stars. I didn't walk away from the book feeling like it was an amazing book but on the other hand, I couldn't seem to ever put the book down.

While there were admittedly a few times where I laughed out loud, the book was not full of hilarity as I had expected it to be. In actuality, the book was more somber than funny. The book follows Edgar's life which is full of abuse, neglect, tragedy, and heartbreak. One can't help but feel c More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 16, 2010

Chrisiant rated it:

Exquisite book. Painful. The kid gets run over by a mail truck and gets his head squashed in and survives, but after that it's a lot of misery and suffering, and from what the kid can piece together from before the squashed-in head it wasn't super-pleasant before then. I should have realized earlier in the book that there were going to be some missing pieces revealed from all the fog of pre-squashed-head lost memory, but oh the long and painful journey to get to some of those reveals. Charac More...

0 comments like

Jan 03, 2009

Hyun rated it:

This book was a wonderful read.

I was walking around in Barnes & Noble randomly searching for a book to read. I had picked up this book without thinking but was hooked fast with the sentence on written on the back of the book.

'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.'

The story itself was ... well not a happy, sunny, filled with love kind of story, but you can still feel t More...

0 comments like

Jan 26, 2012

Tracy rated it:

What a great book!!!.....It definately runs along the lines of a John Irving novel which really pleases me since I adore John Irving!....Edgar Mint gets straight into your heart and you just can't let go....from the stark and sad beginning to the incredible surprise ending......Edgar Mint is a survivor and someone that you will constantly root for. He makes many mistakes along the way but he always survives the most harrowing of life events by coming out on top......as Edgar mentions in the end More...

0 comments like

Jun 02, 2010

Paul rated it:

Without doubt, one of my favourite reads of the last 10 years. Edgars journey through life from the near fatal (but curiously comic) episode with a mailmans van as a young boy right through his adult quest for belonging is masterfully told. A brilliant mix of tragedy and comedy, it avoids sentimentality, and yet you cannot help but be moved by all that Edgar endures. Almost Dickensian in parts, Udall will have you rooting for the boy who just wants to fit in and find out who he really is. Its un More...

0 comments like

Jul 04, 2011

Carol rated it:

The life of Edgar Mint is hopeless, relentless, merciless, and violent in the beginning. Not the kind of stuff I usually want to read. However, I was hooked early on, and didn't want to put it down. Like a dog with a bone, I didn't want to give it up. RRRRR.

Edgar's trials are many and various. You need to read this book. It's good to be exposed to new and original work. New experiences, vicariously.

When I think back on it, I can see the characters as if they were on TV or More...

0 comments like

reviews