How could I resist reading a bestseller written by a fellow software developer? Wroblewski borrows his plot from Hamlet, complete with the ghost and the poison, but to enjoy this book you really need to like dogs or at least like books about dogs. The Sawtelle dogs have been bred for generations for nebulous qualities and trained to be superb companions at eighteen months. In this book their characters are just as richly drawn as those of the people, with the exception perhaps of the title character. Edgar is an adolescent who has been mute since birth due to a physical limitation. Things really get rolling when his father dies suddenly and Edgar is unable to call for help. Edgar's mother Trudy is not particularly endearing, especially when she takes up with her husband's shady brother Claude. A not-so-accidental accident prompts Edgar to leave home with nothing but the clothes on his back and three loyal dogs. The section of the book that follows is the most gripping, as Edgar has to resort to breaking and entering to feed himself and the dogs. There are several Harry Potter-like supernatural events, including a foretelling of Edgar's fate. On the one hand, they detract from the book's realism, but, on the other hand, they're integral to the story, just as they were in Hamlet.
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