Chance and coincidence

You swam in a river of chance and coincidence. You clung to the happiest accidents — the rest you let float by.

David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

One unhappy accident that Edgar Sawtelle cannot let float by is his inability to talk. He learns sign language at an early age in David Wroblewski's 2008 novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. His parents make their living by breeding, training and selling dogs — the famous Sawtelle dogs — and when Edgar is old enough to train his first litter of dogs, he teaches them using sign language.

Edgar's idyllic life begins to become unsettled when Claude, his father's brother, moves in with them. The brothers argue frequently, and when his father dies mysteriously, Edgar suspects his uncle of murder. Then when Claude moves into his mother's bedroom and the boy overhears his uncle plotting with the veterinarian who owns a small share of the family business, Edgar begins acting strangely, unable to control or communicate his feelings. Then the vet dies in an accident in which the boy plays a role. Edgar flees into the Wisconsin wilderness with three of his dogs, while the vet's son, the county sheriff, searches for him.

This is a long novel, and this brief synopsis hardly gives the full picture. But then Wroblewski doesn't give the full picture either, being one of those writers who prefers ambiguity to clarity at key moments in the story. Ambiguity makes for art, but too much ambiguity just makes for confusion, and the author often comes too close to that line.

Still this is a powerful novel that offers the reader many rewards, chief among them being the main character and his dogs. The details about living with an inability to speak, training dogs and surviving for weeks in a national forest are excellent, as is the story itself. Such a story does not happen by chance and coincidence.