Rating: 
Summary: Miracle Life is a Seductive Read
Review: The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint reads like Angela's Ashes set in the American West in the late 1960's. Written in first person, this piece carries the reader through the everyday experiences of a lovable, picaresque half-Indian, half-white boy as he recovers from a near death experience early in the book, and is subsequently bounced around from one difficult situation to another, trying to make sense out of the adults who control his life. We learn to love Edgar as he encounters a wide range of characters, some loveable, some not, but all of them interesting. Udall uses bold brush strokes in a style that never distracts from the narrative flow.
Four out of five stars from this reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant writing, amazing characters, hope for the future
Review: I recently attended a booksellers conference and "Edgar Mint" was the talk of the professionals there...so I couldn't wait to get home and dig in. I was not disappointed. Edgar Mint is one of the most unforgettable characters I have encountered in many years, and his story is at once engaging, tragic, engrossing and terrifying. The most compelling part of the book is that despite life events which would have most of us on Prozac or Jack Daniels for the rest of our lives, Edgar takes each part of his life at face value, and ultimately is able to view life with an incredible amount of hope and love. Unlike a previous reviewer, I found the ending enormously satisfying and even life-affirming. We hear so many stories about kids "falling through the cracks;" those whose life circumstances caused them to act out violence or other anti-social behaviors to others. What a ray of hope it is to read a story where a character lives his entire life not to plot revenge on those who have wronged him, but to forgive...and in doing so, changes the lives of all he touches for the better. Read this book!!!
Rating:
Summary: Very Dickens, Very Irving, Very Good
Review: This is one of those novels that once started, I could not put down. Edgar's story over the eight years that comprise the subject for this novel is fascinating, horrifying, engrossing, and oh, so human. It's certainly one of the most enjoyable books I've read in recent years, and for that reason alone I would recommend it. Yes, the style and tone are reminiscent of John Irving, which in term places Udall squarely in the storytelling tradition of Charles Dickens. The difficult-journey-with-tribulations-but-with-hope-and-human-virtues-always-maintained is certainly what we've got with Edgar Mint, starting with the very first sentence regarding how the mailman ran over his head. Udall writes with wit and an overall tinge of black humor, and right up until the very end of the book, Edgar's journey, while sometimes fantastic and unlikely, is certainly a fascinating one.
My only quarrel with Udall (and the reason for my awarding the book four stars instead of five) has to do with the ending. I don't want to include any spoilers, but suffice it to say that the final chapter of the book includes a layer of warm-and-cloying that for my taste was laid on just a bit too thickly. Are we to believe that in a world in which schoolboys torture one another while the responsible adults sit by obliviously, where Native Americans drink themselves to death while regarding their own offspring with complete indifference, where people are forced to resort to the most horrifying crimes in order to ensure their own survival, suddenly life can transform into a never-ending succession of *Saturday Evening Post* covers? This kind of naively moralistic *telos* certainly worked for Dickens, but that was in a different time and literary context. At the conclusion of the book I felt warm and fuzzy and happy for Edgar, but the little voice inside me was protesting that in the context of 2001 this ending veritably screamed 'made for Hollywood,' and I found this disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: One of My Favorite Books Ever!
Review: Based on the first paragraph of the book, I was expecting a humorous story. That it was, but also tragic, sad, uplifting, moving, and all the other adjectives one can think of. Toward the end of the book, I rationed myself to one chapter a day, so as to prolong the ending. This book contains so many deeply moving episodes. Edgar Mint is such an inspiration. All I can say is "Read this book!"
Rating: 
Summary: Edgar Mint- A mixed bag
Review: Let me start out by saying that I really wanted to like this book more than I did.
I originally picked up this book because I am interested in the portrayal or Mormons and areas and things I am familiar with in print. I've spent time in Northern Arizona, am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints, and we had an Indian placement student that was friends with my big brother who lived in my neighborhood while I was growing up.
I picked up the book and was surprised at the talent of the author. It isn't often you can find an author who can paint an accurate and interesting portrait of Midwestern life. The author has a gift for comedy. I found myself laughing out loud at Barry and Peter posing as Mormon missionaries and Edgar's poser father among other things. I enjoy many aspects of his style. He writes in a more removed tone, which makes it as though your observing the story from a scientific distance than being emeshed with your typical hero, villains and other side characters that are not as important.
The first sixty pages are great- what a beginning- a boy getting his head run over by the mailman. Though this may not sound funny or a good way to start, it hooks you. Unfortunately the book loses steam as Edgar goes to the boarding school. While Edgar is at the Boarding school it goes into graphic detail and could be considered crude by some. I am all for reality in print, it just seems as though there is a preoccupation with sex, breasts, and later masturbation that seems counterproductive to the story the author is trying to tell. The main fault I see is that it lags due to a lack of original plot in the school. The plot is the exact same as "The Power of One"-mean students, separation from a best friend, bullying, loneliness, bedwetting, etc.
When Edgar is in Richland the book starts to pick up steam, although flaws become more apparent. The message-life is cruel and confusing though there are bright points-is a good one, it just feels to much like it's searching for a message at the end.
I feel this book is a mixed bag, and hopefully a mixed glimpse of what could become a great author.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!
Review: This novel is wonderful, entertaining, enjoyable and brilliant! I dare anyone not to fall in love with Edgar and his remarkable adventure. Buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book Led By A Great Character
Review: Fans of Dicken's little Oliver Twist or John Irving's Owen Meany and Homer Wells would feel right at home in the world of Edgar Mint; A half Apache boy who begins the novel by telling us when he was seven years old, "the mailman ran over my head." His journey, told first person, follows him from the hospital to a school for juvenile delinquents, and later to a Mormon family. To tell much more would give too much away. Brady Udall, like Irving and Dickens who he'll no doubt be compared to fills his book with detailed and flawed characters. And like Irving he knows just how to tug at the heartstrings without wallowing in sentiment. A great book.
Rating:
Summary: Dickens in Arizona
Review: The first sentence grips you: "If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head." In that first sentence is a distillation of what you'll find in this marvelous novel: plenty of laughs, moments of unbelievable horror, and a series of heart-wrenching events that will keep you turning the pages.If Dickens had written a novel set in the contemporary American West, this would be it. The characters are vividly drawn, with a winning central character and a vivid cast of heroes and villains. EDGAR MINT also represents a throwback to a more recent period of literature: the 1960s. The novel's mixture of pathos and black humor is reminiscent of CATCH-22 and especially ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. I finished reading EDGAR just an hour ago, fully satisfied that I had been taken on a journey that I won't soon forget.
Rating:
Summary: Oliver Twisted
Review: Edgar Mint is the child of America's shame. Born of an ignorant caucasian wanderer and an Indian girl barely out of her teens, he belongs nowhere, is loved by noone, and stands as a mute indictment of a world filled with hypocrisy, brutality, and despair. There's something about Edgar, though, which enables him to give and receive redemption all throughout his life. He cannot, will not die. His is a life filled with resurrections. They occur with alarming regularity. In the opening pages of Barry Udall's remarkable new novel, six-year-old Edgar has his head run over in an accident with a mail truck. Surviving this catastrophe through the ministrations of a darkly obsessive doctor, Edgar spends his formative years in the warm coccoon of a hospital ward, the hellish confines of a boarding school for Indian children, and finally on the periphery of a well-meaning but troubled Mormon family. Barry Udall guides us through thirty years of Edgar Mint's life and leaves us wanting more. The Dickensian plot twists and resolutions underline Edgar's superhuman resiliency, as well as his heartbreaking vulnerability. It's impossible not to love this kid, and to want to be the one who makes everything OK. There are several blanks to fill in in Edgar Mint's life, in time and space. It seems like everyone's missing something about this boy. As he wanders through life looking for someone he knows he's lost, Edgar survives more physical traumas, only to face the death of those he comes to love over and over, in a cycle linked to his intricate destiny. Edgar's journey is a process of coming to terms with loss, and finding himself. In so doing, he brings many others back to themselves as well.
Rating:
Summary: I want to get home to finish it...
Review: Brady Udall spoke to my creative writing class at BYU about 4 years ago (after the success of his collection of short stories) and told us he was working on his first novel. Well, a great work like Edgar takes a while, but I am glad it worked out for him! I am sitting here at work and I can't wait for 5pm so I can drive home and finish this book. I was actually late for work this morning because I decided to peak in and see what was going to happen with Edgar, Sunny, and the Brain and his trip to see his old friend in Nevada. I couldn't put the book down! Edgar Mint makes me laugh out loud. There are so many insights into the human condition in this book, that I constantly find myself saying back at Brady, "You hit the nail on the head there, my friend."
|
