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A review by tobin_elliott
Familiaris by David Wroblewski
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book.
Damn.
It has a lot to live up to. Of all the books in the world that I've read up to now, its predecessor, THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE is a book that, for something like 16 years, I have labeled as my favourite novel of all time. The weird thing? I can't put my finger on exactly why. Maybe it's the characters. Maybe it's the story. Maybe it's the dogs. Maybe it's the gorgeous writing.
But it's my favourite book. So, FAMILIARIS has a lot of work to do.
And honestly, while there's no real plot beyond it being, in the first half, THE STORY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, it's truly enjoyable. It meanders here. It meanders there. It brings you to a certain point, then stops, jumps locations and characters, and starts all over again. The villains that show up are dispatched quickly and mostly off-stage. There's no slow build of tension as any reasonable book has, but there's tension throughout. Characters come and go. Some come back, some don't.
Then, in the second half, it kind of does all that again, but with Gar and Claude, John's sons. So, for a while, it becomes THE STORY OF GAR AND CLAUDE SAWTELLE. I will say I had a harder time with this section, primarily because of the business one of the sons was engaged in. I found it hard to believe he'd do this, raised in the Sawtelle home.
So, there's a good two to three hundred pages that I would rate more a 3.5 stars, rather than five.
And then, toward the end, it becomes THE DIARY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, which was both frustrating and illuminating.
But through it all, there was fear, and laughter, and anger, and frustration, and hope, and inspiration, and despair, and hate, and heartbreak.
Ultimately, this is a book about lives. About setting out to do something magical and, sometimes pulling it off, sometimes not.
This shouldn't work as a novel. But it does.
It does not supplant my ranking of EDGAR SAWTELLE as the best book I've ever read, but I'd say its a worthy successor to it, and an interesting prequel to that novel.
I can only hope we don't have to wait until 2040 for the next Wroblewski work.
Damn.
It has a lot to live up to. Of all the books in the world that I've read up to now, its predecessor, THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE is a book that, for something like 16 years, I have labeled as my favourite novel of all time. The weird thing? I can't put my finger on exactly why. Maybe it's the characters. Maybe it's the story. Maybe it's the dogs. Maybe it's the gorgeous writing.
But it's my favourite book. So, FAMILIARIS has a lot of work to do.
And honestly, while there's no real plot beyond it being, in the first half, THE STORY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, it's truly enjoyable. It meanders here. It meanders there. It brings you to a certain point, then stops, jumps locations and characters, and starts all over again. The villains that show up are dispatched quickly and mostly off-stage. There's no slow build of tension as any reasonable book has, but there's tension throughout. Characters come and go. Some come back, some don't.
Then, in the second half, it kind of does all that again, but with Gar and Claude, John's sons. So, for a while, it becomes THE STORY OF GAR AND CLAUDE SAWTELLE. I will say I had a harder time with this section, primarily because of the business one of the sons was engaged in. I found it hard to believe he'd do this, raised in the Sawtelle home.
So, there's a good two to three hundred pages that I would rate more a 3.5 stars, rather than five.
And then, toward the end, it becomes THE DIARY OF JOHN SAWTELLE, which was both frustrating and illuminating.
But through it all, there was fear, and laughter, and anger, and frustration, and hope, and inspiration, and despair, and hate, and heartbreak.
Ultimately, this is a book about lives. About setting out to do something magical and, sometimes pulling it off, sometimes not.
This shouldn't work as a novel. But it does.
It does not supplant my ranking of EDGAR SAWTELLE as the best book I've ever read, but I'd say its a worthy successor to it, and an interesting prequel to that novel.
I can only hope we don't have to wait until 2040 for the next Wroblewski work.