The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle: Reviewing David Wroblewski’s Masterpiece

Finally finished this behemoth of a book. Whew! I am now struggling to come to terms with the book as well as decide how I want to word this review without giving too much of the plot away; and then gave up on the attempt because I am revealing the plot by just mentioning that it is based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet :D.

Only the story is set in a remote northern Wisconsin dog farm where the Sawtelle family raises its own breed of dogs, known as Sawtelle dogs.

Born mute, Edgar (Hamlet) nevertheless lives an idyllic life on his farm with his parents and dogs until the day his uncle Claude moves in with the family. Edgar’s father dies a sudden and mysterious death, and Claude becomes his mother’s lover. And then one day, Edgar sees his father’s ghost!

Edgar vows to learn the truth about his father’s death but when his efforts end in disaster, he flees to the forest with three of his dogs. After some time, and after learning some life lessons, he sees some sort of sign, which suggests that he should return and face his ghosts. He comes back and faces a final dramatic showdown with Claude.

Before I go further with the review, I thought it would be useful to list out the characters in the book versus those in Hamlet. While reading this book, I found that I was constantly going back and forth between the book and Hamlet so that I could understand things a bit better (or because I was chomping at the bit to know what was going to happen 😀).

So, here’s a list of the characters that I could map to their equivalent ones in Hamlet. Some of the dogs in the book act as stand-ins for some of the human characters in Hamlet.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Review

Generally, I loved this novel. I think the author’s idea of making Edgar mute is just brilliant. For one, it avoids any negative comparisons with Hamlet’s brilliant soliloquies. It also provides an additional depth to the story. Edgar’s disability + his youth (he is only 14) make him a very endearing hero. The section in the book where his father is dying, and he is calling 911 but cannot communicate with the telephone operator, brought tears to my eyes.

The story’s setting in a remote place and the humanizing of the dogs’ emotions (without being patronizing/childish) bring additional depth to the novel. Dog lovers will appreciate the amount of research the author did and the sensitivity of his writing.

However, the extremely slow pace of the novel tried my patience at times. This book is filled with descriptions, descriptions, and more descriptions. In addition, numerous rather mystical moments seem promising but are not dealt with later on. I am not sure whether these are loose ends within the book or whether the author just wanted us to infer things on our own. Either way, I feel a little additional explanation about people’s motives and a little less description of the barn, the countryside, the forest, and the dog breeding process might have made the book a more powerful read.

For example, I never quite understood the animosity between Gar and Claude. In Hamlet, the King’s murder makes perfect sense because the throne is worth killing for. In this book, I did not get why Claude killed Gar – for the dog farm, the wife, or just general sibling rivalry?? Why??

I wish I had read this book with someone else because there are a lot of discussion points, and it makes for very interesting debates about the nature of man and the nature of dogs. This would be an excellent book club pick.

And oh, yeah! The end is brutal…well, of course it is, it is based on the over-the-top bloody Hamlet, for God’s sake. What other ending could it have?

I think the binding of the book’s paperback version sold in India is of very poor quality, especially considering that this is quite the chunkster. My copy of the book practically fell apart after just this one reading. My suggestion, if you are buying this book, buy it in hardcover. This book is worth the extra money you spend on it.