The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint: Summary and book reviews of The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall, plus links to an excerpt from The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint and a biography of Brady Udall.
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint
by Brady Udall
Hardcover: Apr 2001,
384 pages.
Paperback: May 2002,
432 pages.
If I could
tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years
old the mailman ran over my head. As formative events go, nothing else comes
close.
With these words Edgar Mint, half-Apache and mostly orphaned, makes his
unshakable claim on our attention. In the course of Brady Udall's
high-spirited, inexhaustibly inventive novel, Edgar survives not just this
bizarre accident, but a hellish boarding school for Native American orphans, a
well-meaning but wildly dysfunctional Mormon foster-family, and the loss of most
of the illusions that are supposed to make life bearable.
What persists is Edgar's innate goodness, his belief in the redeeming power of
language, and his determination to find and forgive the man who almost killed
him.The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint is a miracle of
storytelling, bursting with heartache and hilarity and inhabited by characters
as outsized as the landscape of the American West.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
School Library Journal - Emily Lloyd
Adult/High School-With Dickensian flair and mastery. This novel is a wonderful,
wise debut, with a strong story told in language that teens will find easy to
embrace.
Kirkus Reviews
A remarkably assured debut novel that brings to life a unique
world, tells its story with skill, and remains enthralling throughout. A bit of
a miracle in its own right.
Chicago
Vibrant, big-hearted . . . A poignant, picaresque odyssey.
Elle Magazine
[An] ingenious tale, which takes its heart from Dickens and its soul from
America's great outlaw West.
Los Angeles Times
Marvelous . . . Edgar Mint is nobody's Everyman, but he is the hope and the
pain of a child looking for, and eventually finding, a home.
The Oregonian
Be prepared to fall head over heels for Edgar Mint . . . a charming and
delightful narrator you can't help but cheer on through the end.
The Wall Street Journal
Profound and stirring . . . brilliantly executed.
Tony Earley
If Dickens had been born in Arizona, he might have written a book like this.
Junot Diaz
A story that tears at you and calls you back.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Lydia The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint I love the idea of Edgar living his life in reverse, going from severe almost unendurable hardship to come "home" and be a child, something he deserved in the first fifteen years of his life. A refreshing and poignant ending. I was rooting for... Read More
Rated of 5
by Kim Entertaining read As has been mentioned elsewhere, this author's style is similar to John Irving's -- lots of quirky characters, unusual circumstances, by turns very funny & deeply moving (More like the World According to Garp Irving than the Owen... Read More
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The Oregonian
Tony Earley
of 5
by Lydia
of 5
by Kim
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