Book report

Well, I finally finished reading “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle,” and was I disappointed!

It’s a story about a boy and a dog – actually a lot of dogs – that has an ending that absolutely doesn’t make sense. Someone mentioned it was a takeoff on “Hamlet” in a review. Okay, that must be why so many folks died in the end – both good and bad – except the poor mother. One has to believe that she couldn’t have survived past the last page anyway, so she might as well have been killed off before the end too.

There was real evil in that book along with supernatural beings and ghosts. The human characters were less developed than the dog characters, and the reason for the murders was never really explained. I guess one brother was out to get the other and anything that came between him and his brother’s wife and business – like the son and the friendly old vet – were targets as well. I just smacked that book on the table when I finished it angry at myself for wasting so much time reading it. It’s not often that I feel that way at the end of a book. I knew I was reading something weird, something I really wasn’t interested in, and I kept at it. What a waste!

So, on to something else. My bookshelf runneth over.