Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Wroblewski delivers a gratifying if overstuffed prequel to his 2008 bestseller, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. In May 1919, 22-year-old Wisconsin automotive worker John Sawtelle witnesses his boss's murder and heads north with his wife, Mary, and their friends Ulysses Elbow and Frank Eckling out of fear he'll be falsely implicated in the crime. After the four settle on a dilapidated farm, John works as a dog breeder, raises two sons, Edgar and Claude, and encounters some unsettling surprises in the woods surrounding the property. One plot thread features a neighbor with supernatural abilities--she ages at half the normal human rate and can see into a person's future. Another involves a violent and tragic episode, which results in the Sawtelles and their friends going their separate ways. The author tends to lose his way in lengthy sections of backstory and drawn-out conversation pieces as the plot slowly approaches the events of the first novel. Still, there are beautiful passages on the bonds between humans and animals and plenty of folksy charm. Fans of the first book will be satisfied. Agent: Eleanor Jackson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Wroblewski's second novel, a prequel to 2008's The History of Edgar Sawtelle and an Oprah's Book Club pick, focuses on the story of Edgar's grandfather, John Sawtelle. Stage actor Richard Poe, an Audie finalist for his narration of The History of Edgar Sawtelle, again establishes an atmospheric presence that immediately draws listeners into Wroblewski's gracefully described world. The story winds its way through the past in the forests of Wisconsin. As characters come onto the stage, Wroblewski delves into their backstories, beginning in 1919 as John and Mary start their adult lives together, breeding and training their remarkable dogs and shaping them into magically intuitive companions. The couple follow up yearly on each pup they place in a home, going so far as to steal back dogs whose owners chain them up outside or mistreat them. Over the years, the dogs and John and Mary's two sons bring challenges and charm to the story. VERDICT Although the audiobook clocks in at over 37 hours, in the end, listeners will be reluctant to leave this beautiful landscape. Those who enjoyed The History of Edgar Sawtelle will be enraptured, and newcomers to Wroblewski's writing will immediately be requesting it.--Laura Trombley
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A great American novel of people and passions and ideas--and, of course, dogs. For the many fans of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (2008), this ambitious and captivating prequel focuses on that character's grandfather, John Sawtelle. Its nearly 1,200 pages begin in 1919 when John, who has been working as a road-tester at a car factory, finds a perfect piece of land when his jalopy breaks down in middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin, where he surprises his dog, Gus, by walking 63 yards on his hands. John won't take possession of this inspiring tract for another 300-some pages, necessary to introduce the key characters and elements Wroblewski has invented to populate his cabinet of wonders. Characters include a giant carpenter named Elbow; a World War I amputee named Frank Eckling; John's brilliant and sensitive soulmate, Mary; a logger named So Jack Von Osten and his huge horse, Granddaddy, who can both count and give romantic counseling. Elements: none more important than a fictional 1897 volume called Practical Agriculture and Free Will by George Solomon Drencher, the source of John's conviction that life's purpose is to "Seek, seek, seek--the Singularism!" John's singularism is of course encapsulated in the breed of dog he and Mary will eventually develop, the Sawtelle dog; you'll wait another few hundred pages for that to emerge, but the delights along the way are manifold. Like this comparison of whiskey and brandy: "Whiskey tasted like some-thing squeezed out of an oak plank, like mentholated gasoline. Brandy was composed of equal parts sunlight and lava. Where whiskey came home looking for an argument, brandy noticed how truly simpatico you were." One of the darker parts of the book focuses on a terrible incident involving John and Mary's sons, setting the stage for events readers of Edgar will recall with a chill. A hilarious and moving section toward the end--by now it's the late 1950s--follows John's attempts to write a book called Familiaris, in which the author may or may not reveal secrets of his craft. Already having drawn comparisons to Russo, Irving, Strout, McCarthy, and Gilbert, with García Márquez added here, Wroblewski earns them all, amply rewarding readers who have been waiting impatiently for 15 years. For all the eons it may take to read it, this colossus of a book will own you. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
