Shaggy dog storyAugust 30, 2008 For a man who can write so lyrically and observantly of nature, David Wroblewski has been responsible for the death of too many trees: excessive length is what happens when you try to weld together the story of a boy and his dogs with "Hamlet." Mere editing could not have solved this problem--it is too deeply a part of the novel.
Even more than in Shakespeare's play, Gertrude/Trudy is an enigma--it doesn't seem possible, even allowing for a more subtle Claudius/Claude than Wroblewski paints, that the woman he gives us in the first fifty pages of the novel would succumb so quickly to her brother-in-law. Claude, who poisons as much with his tongue as with the mysterious substance he acquires in Korea, seems in motivation more like Iago than the king's brother from "Hamlet." (The seer Ida seems to have wandered in from "Macbeth.") Ophelia represented by a dog? If your hero is fourteen, I guess that's the way it's got to be.
And when Hamlet is transformed into a fourteen-year-old boy, the finale of the novel becomes both distasteful and ludicrous. The bloodbath that ends "Hamlet" is fitting because it was not only implicit in the construction of the play, but also because it was understood by contemporaries as an appropriate conclusion to the unnatural usurpation of Claudius and his incest, as it was deemed at the time, with Gertrude. The death of the royal family and the leading figures of the Danish court was a catharsis--the state was normalized and the road clear for Fortinbras/Forte (!) to begin his rule. To heap this weight on Edgar's story is meaningless in its modern context. For what did Wroblewski set the last violent and sentimental scene? To establish the Sawtelle dogs lead by Essay and Forte in a new kingdom at Henry's? Such a conclusion does not justify the events of the last scenes, and renders them silly where they are not painful.
It is probably true that I would not feel so frustrated with the outcome of this novel, had it not really engaged me at many moments. Wroblewski can write well enough to create a universe, but in the end, he leaves us feeling confused and cheated--and wishing he had been more modest in his aspirations. The story of a boy and his dogs might have been story enough.
I didn't get itAugust 30, 2008 This book flows wonderfully, great visuals and characters. I totaly agree with another reviewer in that this book took you off to a certain place, and just dumped you there. Miles of dialog with no ending or meaning to their presence. And the ending he just burns down leaving you speachless that you spent the time to read this, for what? I was stunned at the butchery job of the ending. Maybe he needed to finish as he had a vacation planned, his editor was on his back, I don't know, but he lost me as fan on the ending.
Everyone Will LoveAugust 30, 2008 was a wonderful read! I heartily recommend this book to everyone. Dog lovers will especially appreciate this book.
Overrated but good for a first novelAugust 30, 2008 Definitely impressive for a first novel, but I found it overly long. There was also a "so what" feeling when I finished. It is a remarkable feat to write a 500 page version of Hamlet using a mute boy and dogs to fill out most of the roles, but why? I kept thinking: Borges would have written an equivalent story in 15 pages or less. How much is gained by the added padding when you know the plot all along? And what is gained by making him mute? Also, there turned out to be very few pages written from a dog's perspective - not that they were all that interesting but I think the reviews exaggerate the proportion of those chapters. There were definitely some very clever and humorous decisions regarding the roles from Hamlet that wind up played by dogs and I won't spoil the pleasure of discovery by identifying them here. Also, the scenes with the father's ghost and the lengthy interlude on his own in the woods were well written. But when the plot is known to the reader by virtue of the explicit Hamlet parallel, many sections of the book seemed either forced, to match the Hamlet plot, or to drag as you awaited the next step in the known plot.
RivetingAugust 29, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read this over a three day vacation period just before Labor Day. In the end, despite having to go to work the next day, I stayed up to finish the last hundred pages. It's a beautiful, haunting story that keeps you turning the pages.
