Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your valuable time
Review: I found this novel to be dark and depressing, not humorous at all. It dwells on the pain of being a child of an alcoholic, an orphan, and one who is picked on by bullies. If your reading time is limited, I suggest you use it on another book which is more uplifting.
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this Mint if you have a weak stomach
Review: Udall is a very good writer, but that doesn't guarantee a good novel. Treading in the footsteps of Charles Dickens seems to have compelled him to raise the level of brutality in the orphange to a dismaying level. Perhaps some ambitious writers feel that if their work isn't outraging some middle-class sensibilities, it isn't great literature. If you think works of art made from meat are cutting-edge stuff, this might be for you. The rest of us would be better off re-reading Oliver Twist.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a Wonderful Life!
Review: This is a cross-cultural celebration of life. There were times when I felt like I could not possibly bare another ill to befall the young Apache halfblood Edgar Presley Mint - "Let me off this train! It's speeding right into that oncoming speeding train!" But, as George Michael says: "You gotta have Faith!" And young Edgar has several faiths. Despite The Administration, he learns Native American spirituality at the BIA Boarding School, spends time in the Mormon community, and then goes off to play Bingo with Roman Catholics. Author Brady Udall (I looked at his biography on edgarmint.com - it doesn't have a family tree, but I bet, from the sensibilities and sensitivities and of this book that he's related to Mo) knows whereof he speaks, exhibiting empathy and understanding of Native American (is Vincent DeLaine created in the image of Vine DeLoria?) and environmental issues, and of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints, but then the reader suddenly stumbles upon this unexplained paragraph: "At eighteen Edgar got his driver's license so he could prowl the hilly byways of the town in a jacked-up orange Chevette he bought from (Roman Catholic) Father Grinev's son-in-law..." Say, WHAT? Someone should contact Father Andrew Greeley's Bishop Blackwood Ryan, or Gary Wills, to look into this. ;-) Despite his travails, Edgar Mint not only survives, he triumphs. Udall rivals Frank Capra in the "feel-good" department. Experience this: "How can I explain the wondrousness of walking barefoot across carpet for the first time? Right then I didn't care about getting my own bicycle or free ice cream. Standing on that carpet in my new pajamas with the smell of waffles in the air - what else could I possibly need?" Indeed!
Rating:
Summary: The best novel I've ever read (and that's saying something)
Review: An English major in college, I've read the classics and everything else I could get my hands on. This is, hands down, the best novel I've ever read. I disagree with the critics, however, who keep comparing the author, Brady Udall, to Dickens when he is obviously a modern Mark Twain and this novel could have been titled The Miracle Life of Huck Finn. I almost never recommend books to friends, but I've been giving away paperback copies of this one to everyone I know. My only regret is that this summer I was within 30 miles of where the author lives, but didn't realize it until a day (and several hundred miles) later. Edgar Mint is not an easy read, but the ending is worth the work.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story of hope and perseverance against ALL odds!
Review: I started this story on a long train trip back from Canada, and I finished most of the book on that 10 hour trip. It made the time fly because I was so engrossed that I couldn't put it down! This is a 5-star tale of Edgar Mint, a young half-Apache, whose earliest memory is waking up from a coma which resulted from the mailman running over his head when he was 7-years-old. Abandoned by his alcoholic mother and left for dead by all he knew, Edgar was an orphan left to fend for himself in the bizarre worlds of a substandard hospital, a horrid Native American boarding school and a sadly dysfunctional Mormon foster family. Through all his trials and tribulations, Edgar never gives in to hoplessness or despair and his perserverence leads him to a miraculous discovery about himself. This was a most amazing odyssey, with characters both loveable and hateful...prose poetic, realistic and sometimes even gross! I was astounded at how Mr. Udall created a narrative where answers were revealed and gaps were filled so completely. Heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time!
Rating:
Summary: Am I the only person who didn't like this book?
Review: Not only wasn't it laugh-out-loud funny, I didn't even once crack a smile. The characters are not particularly interesting or sympathetic, just collections of random idiosyncrasies. The arc of Edgar's life isn't interesting either, but simply an excuse to move from one dull vignette to the next. And I didn't see Edgar's optimism in the face of his crushingly depressing circumstances as inspirational. In the final analysis, this book disappointed me because I had been led to expect so much more. I just don't understand why this is considered a good read.
Rating:
Summary: What a pleasant surprise!!!!
Review: After reading a stack of disappointing 'hyped' novels (The godawful Corrections being one if them) I picked this up expecting the same old, same old being shoved down our throats these days by professional critics. But what a surprise! From the first line to the last, the story moved quickly, and engagingly, from situation to situation, character to character. His use of language and vocabulary is skilled and easy to comprehend - not a bit of pretention in this book. You could imagine Edgar sitting on your porch relating this story to you - very naturally, very simply. As another reviewer remarked, you just wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. I usually don't like books that use foul language, but in this case, the language wasn't used to shock or super-injected to boost sales to an audience growing increasingly immune to such language - instead, it peppered the speech as you would see in the 'real' world'. I hope to see more from this author - I loved his style (unlike the forced, pompousness of Corrections)!
Rating:
Summary: Great Characters--- Great Plot --- Great Novel!
Review: I picked up Brady Udall's first novel on a whim. I often judge books by their covers, and this one, with its colorful, quirky photo seemed to advertise a book of the same qualities. I was not disappointed. "The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint" is one of the best books I've read in some time. Very Dickensian in its structure, Edgar is something of an Apache Oliver Twist, an orphan with a heart of gold (mostly) who is set on hard times from the moment he takes his first breath. The novel is filled with interesting (and sometimes lovable) characters, and an interesting and (as you might guess) meandering plot, in which these many characters are met along the way. Similar also in tone to John Irving, the book has a black comic heart--- Edgar's skull-crushing accident at the hands of a mailman in the first line is something Irving might have constructed himself, and might possibly envy Udall for. Finally, and most importantly, this guy can write. Not just funny situations or laughably ludicrous characters, but some pages I found reading again or lingering on for the subtlety or beauty that Mr. Udall has created. Overall, a great first novel. I truly can't wait for another. Let's hope Udall isn't that breed of writer that gets that one great work out of his system, only to disappear into a life of anonymity.
Rating:
Summary: Duplicity Reigns for Poor Edgar
Review: Here we have a child who was neglected by his mother. Wonderful stuff, the lead in. The very pseudo humorous beginning of having his head run over by the mail truck sucks the reader in and falsifies everything with a funny slant that we read for 100 pages. This book is not funny, but it is delightfully engaging. Edgar's voice trivializes momentous events and minimizes tragedy and pathos because he's a little kid in limbo, and nearly arriving at death's door, daily intimidated by the bullies of this world. I think this is near genius writing. The hospital scenes are worthy of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and the school is a succubus. The main body of the piece stretches the readers' sensitivity level, faced as we are with unmanageable and horrific upbringing, more than normal cruelty of children, and then, in the conclusion, Edgar Mint has an opportunity to sit back, regain lost years, and grow up, if that is possible. Five out of five for me, and an unusual book with brilliance. Roe
Rating:
Summary: Duplicity Reigns for Poor Edgar
Review: Here we have a child who was neglected by his mother. Wonderful stuff, the lead in. The very pseudo humorous beginning of having his head run over by the mail truck[...]the reader in and falsifies everything with a funny slant that we read for 100 pages. This book is not funny, but it is delightfully engaging. Edgar's voice trivializes momentous events and minimizes tragedy and pathos because he's a little kid in limbo, and nearly arriving at death's door, daily intimidated by the bullies of this world. I think this is near genius writing. The hospital scenes are worthy of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and the school is a succubus. The main body of the piece stretches the readers' sensitivity level, faced as we are with unmanageable and horrific upbringing, more than normal cruelty of children, and then, in the conclusion, Edgar Mint has an opportunity to sit back, regain lost years, and grow up, if that is possible. Five out of five for me, and an unusual book with brilliance. Roe
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