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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
by David Wroblewski
by David Wroblewski
** spoiler alert **
Problems with rewriting Hamlet as a story about dog-breeders in Wisconsin:
(1) Hamlet is already pretty good, and most writers don't profit by inviting the comparison.
(2) It makes the plot pretty predictable, which is a problem for what was apparently supposed to be an adventure novel. Yes, Claude did it! (By the way, DW, why did he do it?) No, it's not Claude listening to your conversation with mom! Sigh.
(3) The worst mistake you can make in an animal story, I think, is killing off a beloved pet for dramatic effect. It's like kicking the reader in the groin: it's a cheap shot, and no one can feel good about it. Almondine should have been Horatio, not Ophelia -- I was quite willing to see all the main characters die if it meant the dog made it out alive.
. . . The second chapter of this book was absolutely beautiful. The rest made me grumpy -- Wroblewski obviously has enormous desciptive talent, and there's a sense of joy in his description of dogs that made me want to love the book, but I think his good intentions were hijacked by a misguided interest in Hamlet that gave him cover for his failure to figure out what to do with all these interesting ideas.
(1) Hamlet is already pretty good, and most writers don't profit by inviting the comparison.
(2) It makes the plot pretty predictable, which is a problem for what was apparently supposed to be an adventure novel. Yes, Claude did it! (By the way, DW, why did he do it?) No, it's not Claude listening to your conversation with mom! Sigh.
(3) The worst mistake you can make in an animal story, I think, is killing off a beloved pet for dramatic effect. It's like kicking the reader in the groin: it's a cheap shot, and no one can feel good about it. Almondine should have been Horatio, not Ophelia -- I was quite willing to see all the main characters die if it meant the dog made it out alive.
. . . The second chapter of this book was absolutely beautiful. The rest made me grumpy -- Wroblewski obviously has enormous desciptive talent, and there's a sense of joy in his description of dogs that made me want to love the book, but I think his good intentions were hijacked by a misguided interest in Hamlet that gave him cover for his failure to figure out what to do with all these interesting ideas.
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Patrick
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Jan 06, 2009 12:13am
Brilliant! Thank you....
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Almondine should have been Horatio, not Ophelia -- I was quite willing to see all the main characters die if it meant the dog made it out alive. Yes, yes, yes. These are my exact feelings about this book.
Andrew--I agree with so much of your review, although I think I liked it a little better than you did. I really enjoyed some of the writing. I wish the author had ditched the "Hamlet" plot and just let the characters be true to themselves.
I wish I had written these exact words as my review. They are exactly, one hundred percent what I thought. Even the comment about Almondine being Horatio instead of Ophelia. I honestly thought that about 25 times during the reading. I had this terrible feeling she'd be killed off, and then I kept thinking, no no no, she should be Horatio, she's the best friend, etc. But no. Point number 3 in your review - exactly.
