Oy.

That's it.  Just Oy.

Have you ever picked up a book, and thought it looked rather daunting, but you plunge into it, and some parts just seem to drag on, but for the most part it's really a good book.  But as you read, you keep checking your progress...halfway through...3/4 through... how is this going to end?   what's going to happen to the guy?  what about the dog?  why can't they see what's right in front of them?   OMG!  only 2 chapters left... what?  well, that was a stupid thing to do...And then you start getting the sneaking suspicion that the author was just getting tired of it.  The publisher was getting antsy ("When's it going to be done?").  The editor was getting antsy ("Ya know, we do have a deadline...").  But the author had tangled up so many story lines, and he had to find a way to end it all, and soon.  So, he just...did.  End it.  And not in a satisfactory way.

Such was the case with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.  Very engrossing, for the most part, but I read the last page feeling a sense of loss.  Like the story wasn't quite done.  I guess the sense of loss came from the loss of the 4 days it took me to read it. Not satisfying at all.

I just paged over to Amazon. com to read some of the reader reviews, and most of them are pretty much the same.  "Little Angie" summed it up pretty well:  Sometimes a book just has the wrong ending, not a sad or loose end trailing kind of ending--both of those endings are just fine if they are the right ending for the story, but the wrong ending. 'The Story of Edgar Sawtelle' is a book with the wrong ending, making it a frustrating read....'The Story of Edgar Sawtelle' frustrates so many of us posting on this site because the ending feels so wrong. Could Wroblewski have just gotten tired of telling his story and wanted to be done or perhaps his editor was up against a time crunch and needed to get the book to bookstore shelves quickly? Whatever happened, it's a shame because the characters deserved a proper ending and so did we, the readers.

Do yourself a huge favor, and do not waste your time on this book, unless you thoroughly enjoyed Hamlet, which this book apparently parallels.