The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint: A Novel

As a member of the LDS (Mormon) Church who has lived in Utah on and off for more than four decades, I'm familiar with the culture and the landscapes of the American Southwest. So when I read Brady Udall's "The Lonely Polygamist" about a month ago, the story resonated with me on several different levels. I thought it was the work of genius. That's why I hurriedly bought "The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint." I wanted to see if Udall was really that talented or if he was just a one-hit wonder. I'm happy to report that he isn't. Edgar Mint is every bit as memorable as Golden Richards, the protagonist in "The Lonely Polygamist." One of the elements of Udall's story about Edgar Mint is when the half-Apache boy goes to live with a Mormon family. In my teens, as part of the LDS Church's Indian Placement Program, we had a Navajo boy live with us for a year. We all treated him well, but I kind of ignored him -- something I feel bad about to this day because he was a good kid. In the late '80s or thereabouts, the Indian Placement Program was discontinued, which probably was better for everyone concerned. That said, you don't need to be LDS or have a similar background to understand and enjoy this book. Udall is also LDS, but he is anything but a Mormon writer. As he said in an interview about "The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, " he didn't want to be pigeonholed as a Mormon author: "This is not because I am embarrassed by my faith and culture, but because I am working hard to create the kind of art my culture seems set on rejecting," he says. "We, as a people, have always been a bit immature when it comes to art. We have always been threatened by anything that doesn't fit squarely within our system of belief. Good art will always be complex, contradictory and will resist easy judgment -- all things that would make any good Mormon nervous." With this novel, Udall has succeeded in creating a work of art -- a work of literature that will live on in readers' memories long after most of the current bestsellers are consigned to the ash heap. Give it a read.

Edgar Mint is the child of America's shame. Born of an ignorant caucasian wanderer and an Indian girl barely out of her teens, he belongs nowhere, is loved by noone, and stands as a mute indictment of a world filled with hypocrisy, brutality, and despair. There's something about Edgar, though, which enables him to give and receive redemption all throughout his life. He cannot, will not die. His is a life filled with resurrections. They occur with alarming regularity. In the opening pages of Barry Udall's remarkable new novel, six-year-old Edgar has his head run over in an accident with a mail truck. Surviving this catastrophe through the ministrations of a darkly obsessive doctor, Edgar spends his formative years in the warm coccoon of a hospital ward, the hellish confines of a boarding school for Indian children, and finally on the periphery of a well-meaning but troubled Mormon family. Barry Udall guides us through thirty years of Edgar Mint's life and leaves us wanting more. The Dickensian plot twists and resolutions underline Edgar's superhuman resiliency, as well as his heartbreaking vulnerability. It's impossible not to love this kid, and to want to be the one who makes everything OK. There are several blanks to fill in in Edgar Mint's life, in time and space. It seems like everyone's missing something about this boy. As he wanders through life looking for someone he knows he's lost, Edgar survives more physical traumas, only to face the death of those he comes to love over and over, in a cycle linked to his intricate destiny. Edgar's journey is a process of coming to terms with loss, and finding himself. In so doing, he brings many others back to themselves as well.

After reading a review of Udall's newest novel "The Loneliest Polygamist", I was intrigued, did a little research regarding the author and discovered his acclaimed novel "The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint".Edgar Mint is an authentic and sympathetic character. He is lovable. I found myself rooting for him during all the unfortunate events of his young life. Following an accident in which seven-year-old Edgar's head is crushed by a mail jeep, Edgar is brought back to life and the "miracles" continue.This book is peopled with unique, strange and curious characters. Dr. Barry Pinkley is definitely one of the oddest characters. He reminds me of "Lolita's" Humbert, although the motivations behind Barry's obsession with Edgar are apparently different.Udall, a fabulous writer, creates an essentially depressing story and yet never lets the reader get depressed. There is always hope. Edgar is always hopeful.The writing is witty, irreverent, and even funny. It is also crass and vulgar and describes some of the more dark realities of our world. I would advise my more sensitive friends in the book club to avoid it. Everyone else should find it, read it and enjoy.

Some parts of this book were beautifully poetic, insightful, often funny but Edgar's early life at the "boarding" school was just so hard for me to read and it takes up half of the book. Still not every child gets the promise of a charmed life and this story had me rooting for Edgar all the way. The last third of the book really brought it all together and I am glad I read the hard stuff too. I loved that the author reminded us how kids always believe they are the cause of adults troubles and that the need to be loved never dies. Still, in the end, it was just an ill fated accident that kept Edgar from having the childhood every kid wants/needs. As Edgar says (paraphrased) He lived his entire life in reverse, dealing with the hard stuff at his earliest age. Glad I read this book.

I initially found this book a bit of a page turner however. I was already uneasy as to the portrayal of life on a Native American Reservation, where just about everybody was shown as lazy, indifferent or worse.Throughout the book the characters seemed to me two-dimensional stereotypes (with a few exceptions) and the story was at times internally inconsistent. I found the description of the abuse in the school unnecessary and gratuitous and it did not add to the telling of the tale.I began to feel the the author trying to make this child's life seem as awful as possible just for the sake of the story.The ending where he settles down was to me artificial and appeared just tacked on the end.If I had not been reading it for a book club I would have stopped reading it.

I am recommending this book to everyone I know (and those of you I don't) as one of the best books I have read in the last couple of years. Edgar Mint is an incredible voice - from the opening sentence I was hooked and, although his trials and tribulations are many and his relationships are fraught, this story is upbeat and warming. Some previous reviewers have likened this work to John Irvings Owen Meaney and I have to echo their thoughts. Both Edgar and Owen are heroes against all odds. I will certainly be keeping this novel amongst my small collection of books to read again and again.

I recently read this book on holiday, but I wasn't as taken with it as some of the other reviewers. It's an interesting storyline concept, but I couldn't really identify with any of the characters and found the trials and tribulations that Edgar goes through thoroughly depressing at some points. The ending was quite good, and a bit more cheerful, although I felt that the book gave it away before you actually got to it as it is alluded to before you get to what happens. It was a bit of a long slow slog for me and I nearly gave up on it a couple of times.

This book gripped me from the start. Edgar and what happened to him as he grew up was unbelievable I kept thinking what else can possibly happen next. He had such difficulties throughout his childhood and the fates were certainly against him. His thinking processes were kind of logical and the people he met growing up were challenging to say the least. Every teenager who thinks they have it rough should read this book and then will know what a tough life is with bad luck thrown in,

This is far and away one of the best books I've ever read. I laughed and cried and stayed up way past my bedtime because I could not stop reading it. Fans of Russel Banks, TC Boyle and Donald Ray Pollack will enjoy this.Very sad Udall's short stories aren't on kindle yet.