Hokie Thea...about Edgar Sawtelle

[adcooper]

Alert! Other readers may want to finish the book before reading this thread further.

Well, I finally finished the book late last night. Wow. I think I understand your response to the ending. And I think it's really interesting that you found Cold Mountain satisfying, but not this one, and that I had the reverse responses. I found the end of Cold Mountain infuriating--the deaths were so senseless and brutal. This climax felt more like Shakespearian tragedy to me, and it came as less of a shock. There'd been an oracle, for one thing. The odd woman at the store counter, the narrator's forewarnings in several places.

I will think for a long time about the dogs' deliverances in this book, how Edgar shepherded Tinder and Baboo to another world, and how Essay led the others on a different journey. Now I want to read the rest of her story!

There's a short chapter midway through the book that I have read and reread. It's the one from Almondine's point of view after Gar dies. Her grief is so humbling. She is the deepest character in the story, isn't she. Edgar's loss of faith in her is his tragic error, and her ultimate forgiveness lifts him out of Hell.

And the rain! Rain is a character in this book, too. I'd like to have a word with Gar's ghost, though. His afterdeath love for Edgar takes a form that sometimes confuses me.

I have to read it again!

[adcooper]

Thea, dear, you are not holding up your end of the book discussion. So far, I've made half a dozen irrefutable points and read two pages of the climactic final chapter aloud. Where's your refutation? I'm starting to think I know everything!

[HokieThea]

***Do not read if you don't want the story to be spoiled!!**



I'm not quite sure what to say, but that I was just disappointed in the culmination of the story. I mean, what was the point of Edgar's death? What about his mother? What about the other dogs? I guess I just wanted a little more after story. Don't get me wrong, there were parts of the book I like, such as the relationship that grew between Edgar and the man who kept the dogs. (Please keep in mind it has been about 4-5 months since I have read the book, so it is getting fuzzy.) Here's a weird thought I just had: I would kinda like to read a book from his mother's point of view.

As for Cold Mountain, to me the death of Inman was so fitting in its brutality, because it mirrored the brutality of the Civil War itself. And at the risk of sounding sappy and melodramatic, their love and longing was just too intense to transfer to a day-to-day relationship. Have you seen the movie? I hated it. Also, have you read his second book? Hated that even more, very disappointing.

[adcooper]

SPOILER ALERT CONTINUES! Too many details here for those who haven't read the book yet.


There you are, Thea!

No, I haven't seen the movie version of Cold Mountain. I can just about imagine what Hollywood might have done to those characters, whose names I have forgotten, but who were so REAL. I loved their voices and their strength. The ending of that was just too grim for me. It did mirror the brutality of war, of course, I do agree with that. But it was so senseless. So random. Perhaps that's more reality than I can bear.

I hated that Edgar died, too. But this book read more like a classical tragedy to me, and I felt that Edgae died trying to save his family. You probably remember how carefully and in what detail the dogs' pedigrees were recorded. And how the Sawtelle family's own "pedigree" was just the opposite. Edgar's mother an orphan, the story of how she met his father an evolving fiction, Edgar's muteness the embodiment of the family's unspoken/forgotten history. Remember how he was always looking for evidence of the original farm owner's life? Always looking for some family history, or some substitute for family. Only Claude offers any stories about the past, and I think Claude lied. Anyway, the truth of his family was in those records that he was rescuing from the fire. He thought he could save his father's work, though he had not been able to save his father.

The dogs were Edgar's real family, Almondine the real nurturer. He tragically failed Almondine, but he saved Tinder and Baboo, and he prepared Essay to save as many of the others as she could.

I can see why you'd be interested in Trudy's story. I really want to read Essay's!

I understand your feeling about the book. I've talked my youngest daughter into reading it, and she's getting close to the part where he and the dogs leave the woods and stay with ....what's his name? The guy with the ghost in his shed? Man, I love those ghosts! Anyway, I have a feeling I'm going to be in trouble with Mary when she gets to the end. She's an unsuspecting reader, and last time we talked she was still giving Claude the benefit of the doubt. I never liked Claude.

I think you must be right about Cold Mountain. I'm the only one I know who had this response. Maybe I read it at the wrong time in my life. I'm not going to try it again, though! Too heartbreaking.

[Einstein]

I LOVED this book, until the end. I HATED the end so much so that I warned then next 2 people I gave it too. I felt Edgar's death was so stupid, I didn't want Claude to kill again, and get aways with it. Again. And his mother, so smart, so in love, such a good mother and wife. Until Claude?! I loved Edgar.

I loved Cold Mountain too.

Ironically, I just finished Water For Elephants and compared it in the opposite to Edgar Sawtell, Edgar was too brutal at the end for my liking, and I kept waiting for the big tragedy in Elephants, which ended nicely, although with too neat a bow on it for me. But I really, really, really enjoyed it!

[HokieThea]

Einstein, I agree about his mother, which is why I would love to read the story from her point of view.

Water for Elephants was just a wonderful, magical book for me! Very satisfying.

[adcooper]

See, Michelle hated the end, but gave the book to 2 other people!! Yep, it is that kind of book, I guess. I peer pressured a good friend into reading it, and I have no mercy, because she made me read The Hours. Talk about depressing.

[Einstein]

I had to pass it on, it was too good of a story, too well written to be missed. Even if the last few pages left me feeling like I was punched in the gut.

I have a little free time this weekend and I'm not sure what I'll read next, although I kind of want to read Water For Elephants over agin quickly...I really had a hard time putting that book down.

[HokieThea]

Okay Einstein, do you want something heavy or light? I've got suggestions for both!

[Einstein]

Heavy, D is at Fair Hill all weekend and I need/want something to occupy my time!

[filly]

I highly highly suggest Molokai if you want heavy reading or The Book Thief! Both awesome books that stay with you for a long time...

[HokieThea]

I absolutely second Molokai- great book! I was going to suggest The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall. I could not put it down, and didn't want it to end.

If you want lighter fare, pick up The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love. You wil laugh out loud over and over, you may even snort! The author has 5 or 6 Sweet Potato Queens books, and every one is fabulous.

[Bara]

I have followed instructions and not read this thread - as Edgar is in my next Amazon order!

[niaru]

I just finished this book, and I totally understand everyone's reaction! I was forewarned about the end tho because I started reading this thread before I could help it! The end IS a bit unsatisfying to me. Essay and Forte as strays with their pack? What of Claude? Did he survive the fire? (hopefully NOT!! what a twisted and evil character, that one).

I loved the way this book is written. It's beautiful and so telling, without hammering the nail in. What he writes about grief, be it Edgar's, Trudy's, or Almondine's...it's just sooo true, and so moving to me. I hated that Almondine died without seeing Edgar again (in this life anyway).

All in all, a great read!

[Bara]

Just arrived, after all this time! Sent on from my last address. We're a bit backward, here..