The Little Book

Aug 16, 2008 Ron Charles rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Jul 03, 2009 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-clubs

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Jun 15, 2008 Carin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who likes Time and Again

Shelves: historical-fiction, international

This ambitious novel felt to me very much like Time and Again. It had a few moments of repetition, a dash of pretention, and occasional predictability, but overall was an enchanting and fun escape from everyday life. The story of Wheeler, former talented pitcher, former famous musician, and former bestselling author, who has suddenly appeared in the Austria of the 1890s. There he runs into some people from his own personal history and discovers a vast amount of true history of his family and dur...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Kerry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who liked the time traveler's wife

Do you like stories about love, music, and time travel? Do you enjoy a dash of celebrity and a sprinkling of intertwining history? Are you inspired by creative teachers and talented storytellers? If the answer is yes, you should read this book!

I began this book somewhat apprehensively (not always sure about the time travel aspect), but soon embraced it wholeheartedly. It was a lovely story to be swept away with and I really liked the settings of Boston and Vienna. As I proceeded through the boo...more

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Oct 02, 2008 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who liked The Time Traveler's Wife

First of all, BEWARE of reviews that give away too much of this plot (that's you, amazon!) because it will ruin your reading to know too many of the intricate details of this novel. I'm intentionally vague below because key plot elements were given away in some reviews I read.

The time-travel aspect makes you think it's sci-fi, but it's really more of historical fiction in the exhaustive detailing of 1867 Vienna. It also touches on psychology, romance, and philosophy (those who love the time-trav...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Sally rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My family started listening to this audio book on our car ride to and from Bear Valley in late December. We only got to the 4th disc, but it was enough to hook me. (My partner went out and bought a copy of the book, to continue the story.)

Very entertaining -- I've continued with the audio book for my work commute. I heard the author on a panel at the Book Group Expo in San Jose, in October, which got me interested in the book. He worked on this book for 30 years, writing and revising until it w...more

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Nov 11, 2008 Darrin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of time-travel

Recommended to Darrin by: Lisa

Shelves: historical-fiction, science-fiction, literary-fiction, must-read

Time-travel tales, as intricate as they are, require a special touch, a unique understanding of cause and effect. As such they are incredibly easy to write poorly and at the same time quite difficult to write well.

There is a long tradition to the cyclical nature of these tales, beginning, arguably with Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Flying Trunk and continued a century later with Richard Matheson's Somewhere in Time in the 1970s and most recently with Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Tra...more

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Mar 03, 2009 Margaret rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really wanted to give this book three stars but I just can't. To me it
seemed like a case of a wonderful idea, sort of Jack Finney Meets John
Irving, coming unfortunately to someone who just doesn't have the skill or
the ease to realize it effectively. The writing itself is perfectly sound
and literate, but for me the author didn't have the command to carry off his
ridiculously complicated structure - featuring multiple narrative lines,
multiple time periods, and constantly changing angles of view,...more

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Sep 04, 2008 Carey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dilly Burden was a legend and a hero. He excelled at his Boston boys' school and at Harvard, was a star baseball player and gave his life in World War II when he was tortured and killed by the Gestapo in France. His only son, Wheeler, has no memory of his Dad but has spent his life living up to the legend.

Where Dilly was an icon, Wheeler is more eccentric. He followed in his father's footsteps to the Boston boys' school and despite guidance from a much beloved teacher, the Haze, (who had also ta...more Dilly Burden was a legend and a hero. He excelled at his Boston boys' school and at Harvard, was a star baseball player and gave his life in World War II when he was tortured and killed by the Gestapo in France. His only son, Wheeler, has no memory of his Dad but has spent his life living up to the legend.

Where Dilly was an icon, Wheeler is more eccentric. He followed in his father's footsteps to the Boston boys' school and despite guidance from a much beloved teacher, the Haze, (who had also taught his father), he was an average student. He did show talent in baseball but his real love was music. He found great success in his life and was quite a music star in the late 1980s but never stuck to anything, or anyone, for any great length of time. He was always looking for something he couldn't put his finger on.

But that's not where the story begins...

Suddenly one day Wheeler is walking along and begins to realize that he is somewhere he does not recognize. He soon discovers that he is in 1897 Vienna, in his modern clothes and with all of his memories intact. He doesn't know how he got there or how long this visit will last. But as one day stretches to two, he realizes that he is going to need some help. Thanks to the Haze, Wheeler speaks German well and knows a bit about this part of European history. After much consideration he approaches Sigmund Freud, a little known figure at the time, for help. Their discussions and the journal Wheeler starts to keep help him to begin to understand this amazing thing that has happened to him.

During his stay in Vienna, Wheeler discovers his past in a way that is entirely surprising and leaves you hoping that Selden Edwards has somehow really figured out the way the universe works.

There are many well developed characters that appear in the story. The reader gets to know them all and will realize that this book isn't just about Wheeler or even most importantly about Wheeler but about his loved ones and the patterns that life weaves.

This is an absolutely wonderful book. It has layers of meaning and an interconnectedness that make it a breath-taking read. It's a history lesson and a love story, a mystery and a psychology lesson. I can't recommend it highly enough.
(less)

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Jul 14, 2008 Jackie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jackie by: Heather Duncan

Shelves: work-review-related-reading

The Library of Congress cataloging for this book is: 1. Rock musician--fiction. 2. Time travel--fiction. 3.Vienna(Austria)--fiction. 4. Austria--History--1867-1918--Fiction. And it is definitely all of those things. But it's SOOOOOOOOO much more. This book tells a story that keeps looping back upon itself and back upon itself and back upon itself. It introduces us to the likes of Freud and Samuel Clemens, Hitler and the Empress of Vienna. It's a history lesson and a brilliant work of science fic...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Debbie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

I believe our impressions of books are caught by the time and/or order in which we read them. I happen to be a big fan of The Time Traveler's Wife, which in my opinion, nailed the time travel thing with characters I cared about.

It feels like The Little Book flits over way to many subjects. I would have found it more compelling if the story had been more focused on either the Burden family OR the historical aspects. It seems as though the story just 'skims'...the characters, the historical compo...more

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Apr 09, 2009 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I enjoyed this odd book. It ranges from a New England prep school to 1897 Vienna to 1988 San Francisco. Freud, time travel, baseball and a rocker all take a turn in the book, woven through a story that jumps through time, untangling some very tangled secrets indeed.

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Jul 01, 2009 Stacey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: austria

This "little book" was amazingly clever! The story opens with Wheeler Burden awakening in Vienna Austria with no idea how he got there from San Francisco California. As he walks around the city and he becomes more aware of his surroundings, he starts to notice the way people are dressed, the automobiles and picks up a newspaper from a corner stand to see that the year is 1897 instead of 1988. There begins a story with so many twists and turns that it is truly a fun read! Would have rated it a 4....more

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Apr 15, 2013 Annie Smidt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2013

At first, I thought this book was too clever by half. But then I realized that it was just very clever and I liked it. Not exactly a mystery, but mysterious. I'm not the kind of reader who (is good at or) revels in guessing what's ahead, so this book unfolded as a charming series of twists and turns for me.

Though there are dislocations in time, it's not sci-fi in anyway... more just a mesh of convoluted psychological conceits.

Much of the intellectual, cultural, artistic and political life of F...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Yvonne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Time travel fiction is not an easy undertaking and the time the author took, 30 year to be exact, can be seen in this well written piece of fiction that can have you believe in the plausibility of time travel and the thin line one must tread or bear the consequences of the change that can ensue. The characters created are three dimensional to the depths of the secrets that are revealed through out the intertwining story of Wheeler Burden and his legendary father Dilly Burden. Wheeler finds himse...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Vicki rated it 5 of 5 stars

The last male of the Bostonian Burdens, Frank Standish Burden III finds himself walking the broad highway surrounding the culturally rich and beautiful city of Vienna in 1897. The perplexing dilemma he faces is that his last memory is of San Francisco in 1988. He vaguely remembers a traumatic event associated with San Francisco, but realizes he must take steps quickly to fit in and find his way in Vienna, a city he knows much about, but has never visited.

His connection to this time and place com...more The last male of the Bostonian Burdens, Frank Standish Burden III finds himself walking the broad highway surrounding the culturally rich and beautiful city of Vienna in 1897. The perplexing dilemma he faces is that his last memory is of San Francisco in 1988. He vaguely remembers a traumatic event associated with San Francisco, but realizes he must take steps quickly to fit in and find his way in Vienna, a city he knows much about, but has never visited.

His connection to this time and place comes from a favorite teacher from his prep school days in Boston. Arnauld Esterhazy had a profound influence on Wheeler Burden as well as a couple of generations of St. Gregory Prep School boys, including Wheeler's dad, Frank Standish Burden II, also known as Dilly.

Arnauld Esterhazy (The Haze) was a favorite history teacher, impressing on his students the prevailing attitudes of the intellectual and artistic Vienna youth as the Austrian Empire confidently but naively faced the turn of the 19th century. He had been one of those youths himself in 1897. Dilly Burden grew up in Boston and was an outstanding student and athlete at both St. Greg's and Harvard. He was a war hero in WWII, serving with the French Resistance and was killed by the Gestapo as the War wound down. Wheeler had been a toddler when his father died.

Wheeler is now in his late 40s, but has made a name for himself in athletics at both St. Greg's and Harvard before becoming a musical sensation as part of a rock band, leaving that world behind to edit and publish the accumulated notes of The Haze himself. Because of that immersion in Esterhazy's written thoughts and musings over the last 10 years, he is well prepared to make his way in this world. He realizes he must be very careful not to reveal the future to anyone, but at the same time, try to figure out a purpose and a plan for what to do now that he is here.

Wheeler keeps a detailed journal of his thoughts and conversations with the people he meets. In fact one of the first people he thinks to look up is Sigmund Freud, who he knows will come to meet both his grandmother and his mother in the years to come. He believes his story will intrigue Dr. Freud and perhaps convince him to provide some money and a place to stay in exchange for the fantastic but true story he is prepared to share with the famous psychologist.

Wheeler's resolve to keep a distance between himself and others he might unduly influence is challenged when he meets a beautiful young American woman who also seems attracted to him. Against his better judgement, he begins to spend more and more time with her, even after discovering her true identity. In spite of the age difference, he has met the love of his life.

He also begins to challenge Dr. Freud's theories of psychology, perhaps suggesting some ideas that may affect his developing theories of human behavior.

But perhaps the most shocking meeting occurs when he realizes that a young American man he has met in the coffee shop is actually his father, Dilly Burden himself! The last thing Dilly remembers before arriving in Vienna is the elaborate vision he had constructed for himself to avoid the pain of Nazi torture. But it wasn't a plan to meet the Haze in his native land; Dill's plan now that he is in Vienna is to find the 8 year old child who will become Adolph Hitler and kill him before he has a chance to grow up.

Wheeler's story is ostensibly told by his 90 year old mother, who is writing it in 2005, based on the journal that Wheeler kept while he was in Vienna. This plot is amazing in it's intricacy. It involves historical characters interacting with the fictional characters in plausible ways, and is a fascinating take on time travel and how it could affect the future (and/or the past) in untold ways. The author Selden Edwards is a gifted writer, creating characters with depth and charisma that will keep the reader thinking about them long after the book is finished. (less)

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Aug 22, 2012 Vicki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The last male of the Bostonian Burdens, Frank Standish Burden III finds himself walking the broad highway surrounding the culturally rich and beautiful city of Vienna in 1897. The perplexing dilemma he faces is that his last memory is of San Francisco in 1988. He vaguely remembers a traumatic event associated with San Francisco, but realizes he must take steps quickly to fit in and find his way in Vienna, a city he knows much about, but has never visited.

His connection to this time and place com...more The last male of the Bostonian Burdens, Frank Standish Burden III finds himself walking the broad highway surrounding the culturally rich and beautiful city of Vienna in 1897. The perplexing dilemma he faces is that his last memory is of San Francisco in 1988. He vaguely remembers a traumatic event associated with San Francisco, but realizes he must take steps quickly to fit in and find his way in Vienna, a city he knows much about, but has never visited.

His connection to this time and place comes from a favorite teacher from his prep school days in Boston. Arnauld Esterhazy had a profound influence on Wheeler Burden as well as a couple of generations of St. Gregory Prep School boys, including Wheeler's dad, Frank Standish Burden II, also known as Dilly.

Arnauld Esterhazy (The Haze) was a favorite history teacher, impressing on his students the prevailing attitudes of the intellectual and artistic Vienna youth as the Austrian Empire confidently but naively faced the turn of the 19th century. He had been one of those youths himself in 1897. Dilly Burden grew up in Boston and was an outstanding student and athlete at both St. Greg's and Harvard. He was a war hero in WWII, serving with the French Resistance and was killed by the Gestapo as the War wound down. Wheeler had been a toddler when his father died.

Wheeler is now in his late 40s, but has made a name for himself in athletics at both St. Greg's and Harvard before becoming a musical sensation as part of a rock band, leaving that world behind to edit and publish the accumulated notes of The Haze himself. Because of that immersion in Esterhazy's written thoughts and musings over the last 10 years, he is well prepared to make his way in this world. He realizes he must be very careful not to reveal the future to anyone, but at the same time, try to figure out a purpose and a plan for what to do now that he is here.

Wheeler keeps a detailed journal of his thoughts and conversations with the people he meets. In fact one of the first people he thinks to look up is Sigmund Freud, who he knows will come to meet both his grandmother and his mother in the years to come. He believes his story will intrigue Dr. Freud and perhaps convince him to provide some money and a place to stay in exchange for the fantastic but true story he is prepared to share with the famous psychologist.

Wheeler's resolve to keep a distance between himself and others he might unduly influence is challenged when he meets a beautiful young American woman who also seems attracted to him. Against his better judgement, he begins to spend more and more time with her, even after discovering her true identity. In spite of the age difference, he has met the love of his life.

He also begins to challenge Dr. Freud's theories of psychology, perhaps suggesting some ideas that may affect his developing theories of human behavior.

But perhaps the most shocking meeting occurs when he realizes that a young American man he has met in the coffee shop is actually his father, Dilly Burden himself! The last thing Dilly remembers before arriving in Vienna is the elaborate vision he had constructed for himself to avoid the pain of Nazi torture. But it wasn't a plan to meet the Haze in his native land; Dill's plan now that he is in Vienna is to find the 8 year old child who will become Adolph Hitler and kill him before he has a chance to grow up.

Wheeler's story is ostensibly told by his 90 year old mother, who is writing it in 2005, based on the journal that Wheeler kept while he was in Vienna. This plot is amazing in it's intricacy. It involves historical characters interacting with the fictional characters in plausible ways, and is a fascinating take on time travel and how it could affect the future (and/or the past) in untold ways. The author Selden Edwards is a gifted writer, creating characters with depth and charisma that will keep the reader thinking about them long after the book is finished.(less)

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May 08, 2012 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Socrates said that “the unexamined life is not worth living” but in this age of digital narcissism, have we made our lives more worthwhile or have we missed the point entirely? What if the reader of family history could enter a loop of connectedness where it’s possible to meet and ask questions of antecedents? Stan “Wheeler” Burden finds himself in this challenging conundrum “perplexed by the confusions of living his life backward”. Does he introduce himself into the events, possibly altering th...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Susan I rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wanted so much to like it, to get all caught up in it. I kept reading cause I thought there would come a resolution of voices, historical characters intermingled with fictional ones, some reason to have gotten to the end. But when the end came I was so glad to put the book down. I wanted to explore time travel, especially to fin de siecle Vienna, a glorious, vibrant time and place. But I just kept getting bogged down. Stray, competing lines of thought crossed and recrossed constantly. The wri...more

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Mar 09, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For all the hype, I expected so much more from this book. It's about time travel, psychoanalysis, and there's a goopy, unrealistic, annoying love story thrown in. None one of these aspects is done well.
The time travel bit isn't detailed enough to be believable and the characters who do travel back to Vienna in 1897 aren't believable either since they don't struggle or ask enough "why" questions of themselves.
The psychoanalysis is tedious, mostly because it is tied up in the love story. The love...more

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Dec 27, 2009 Scottie Shelton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Someone else said it best on a Barnes an Noble site:

An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de siècle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.

The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legend�s son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, reclus...more

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Nov 14, 2009 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My love for books involving time travel goes back to reading "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" in high school--and, indeed, Mark Twain makes a showing here, as do many other fascinating historical characters from Gustav Mahler to Sigmund Freud to Klaus Lueger, the mayor of Vienna who set in motion a disastrous anti-Semitic movement near the end of the 19th century. The plot and characters (in and out of their "real" times) move through the upheavals of the first half of the 20th centur...more

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Oct 03, 2009 Judith rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Sep 23, 2009 Brent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Those who enjoy historical fiction.

Recommended to Brent by: Lyndi Drews

Shelves: fiction, history

After polishing off The Time Traveler's Wife, I had The Little Book recommended to me since it was also a story of relationships and time travel.

This time, though, our hero, Wheeler Burden, gets to stay in one place: turn-of-the-century Vienna. I'll leave you to discover the circumstances behind his arrival, but what I can tell you is he gets to meet, along with Sigmund Freud and Mark Twain, a father he never knew and a grandfather he wished he never met. The characters are well-constructed, and...more

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Aug 14, 2009 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Time-traveling seems to be "in" these days, and the main character in Selden Edwards's novel is a rock and roll star who finds himself transported to turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna, and embroiled in a series of events that are both preposterous and oddly inevitable. My main gripe, as someone who has read a great deal about fin de siecle Vienna, is that Edwards is rather coy about how he chooses to mix real history with made up history. For example, composer and conductor Gustav Mahler appears a...more

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Jul 02, 2009 Kendra rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“The Little Book” is, perhaps, anything but. At almost 400-pages, this New York Time best seller is the product of the better part of a decade.

And you can tell.

It is obvious Edwards is very familiar with these characters, and is intent on making the reader just as familiar. Down to the minutiae.

On the plus side, yet another world war 2-centric book to add to my growing menagerie.

Unfortunately, also yet another book club pick that fairly missed the mark for me, I’m afraid. I’m not a fan of time...more

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Jul 03, 2009 Andy Miller rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The reviews compared this to Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court based on similarity of American going back in time to a foreign country and I suppose because Mark Twain himself makes an appearance in the book(during a visit Twain made to 1890's Vienna) But I found it to be more like Jack Finney's Time and Again, though not near as good.

There were parts of the book I really liked and in the beginning I was intrigued by the different characters, but I think he tried to do too m...more

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Apr 01, 2012 John Herbert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: time-travel, ten-out-of-ten

Don't be fooled by the title!
This is a big book in every way: a book that will tick all the boxes and cling to your memory from the moment you turn the last page.

Wheeler Burden suddenly finds himself displaced from 1988 San Francisco to 1897 Vienna, and the description of that city at that time simply takes your breath away.

Though not an out and out time travel tale it nevertheless brings together all the delights that you could wish for from that genre: Wheeler suddenly confronted by his much y...more

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Dec 25, 2010 Joshua rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's well written, and the historical elements are definitely fascinating, but the main character is presented in such an odd manner that I never felt anything for him. I'm not sure what I think of this book other than that to be honest, as the characters are well developed and the story certainly takes you places... I'm just not certain that they were places that had any emotional resonance. Perhaps its just me.

If anything, it presents an interesting parallel between a turn of the century Otto...more

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Jan 26, 2010 Christie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I didn't expect to like this book particularly. It came highly recommended, but my immediate reaction was: "Oh, another time travel book. Mundane, probably trite." I'm not a huge fan of time travel books in general (although they've seemed to be super popular). "The Eyre Affair" was fun, but it didn't really revolve around time travel. And I did NOT like "The Time Traveler's Wife" -- predictable and super trite (I barely skimmed the first few hundred pages and then stopped; I already knew the en...more

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