The Little Book | Selden Edwards | A very enjoyable read for a relaxing couple of days

The Little Book | Selden Edwards | An interesting storyline

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The Little Book

	The Little Book Selden Edwards Dutton Adult, 2008 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de siècle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.

The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legend?s son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero. In 1988 he is forty-seven, living in San Francisco. Suddenly he is?still his modern self?wandering in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: fin de siècle Vienna. It is 1897, precisely ninety-one years before his last memory and a half-century before his birth.

It?s not long before Wheeler has acquired appropriate clothes, money, lodging, a group of young Viennese intellectuals as friends, a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young American woman, a passing acquaintance with local celebrity Mark Twain, and an incredible and surprising insight into the dashing young war-hero father he never knew.

But the truth at the center of Wheeler?s dislocation in time remains a stubborn mystery that will take months of exploration and a lifetime of memories to unravel and that will, in the end, reveal nothing short of the eccentric Burden family?s unrivaled impact on the very course of the coming century. The Little Book is a masterpiece of unequaled storytelling that announces Selden Edwards as one of the most dazzling, original, entertaining, and inventive novelists of our time.

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A very enjoyable read for a relaxing couple of days

This is a charming book- relaxing, interesting, engaging- and, once I began the book, I returned to it with pleasure over a couple of days, grabbing every spare moment I could find (including neglecting my work, alas) to curl up and read. I really enjoyed these characters that teetered on the heroic, but were amusingly human, plus the story, the settings, the relaxed and interesting pace. I'm comfortable with fabulous turns in tales, so that was fun and not troubling to me, as it was to some other reviewers (I wonder if they'd call "One Hundred Years of Solitude" science fiction too-- what, exactly, is the "science" part?). Anyway, as a reader now living not far from the Feather River and a one-time resident of Cambridge, MA, I enjoyed the wonderful way the author caught the special flavor of those places... and now, of course, I want to travel to Vienna, preferably to the turn of the last century. Oh well, this book will have to do, along with a few new CDs of Mahler symphonies, or a philosophy book, or a novel by Victor Hugo checked out from the library...

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An interesting storyline

I liked the intricate plot with its many characters, twists and surprises, however I found some sections to be a bit repetitive.

I particularly liked how Edwards captured and described the fin de siécle athmosphere in Vienna: it still feels exactly the same every time I visit, no matter how often I return to that magnificent city.

I was surprised by the many misspellings of almost all German words and expressions: mitt schlagg (should've been "mit Schlag"), Schonbrunn (Schönbrunn), Fraulein (Fräulein) among others. I guess the draft checker didn't use the proper language settings - maybe the editor will correct them in the following editions.

Overall and entertaining book; 4 stars for the uneven pacing and spelling errors.

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How'd He Keep It All Straight?

Well written and cleverly plotted, this book will keep you reading and guessing throughout. Wheeler Burden, the main character, a rock star, intellectual, and celebrity of the 1980's, finds himself in Vienna in 1897 - a place he is familiar with through various family stories and connections through the ages. That these connections all start to play out around him is an understatement. Intricately plotted, the book often seems in danger of collapsing under its own weight - but it does not. And in that tension is much of its charm. If you like historical fiction with a smidgen of fantasy thrown in, this is an enjoyable read, to be sure.

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NPR version of Forest Gump

I was disappointed because of high expectations. I'm fascinated by fin de siècle Vienna. I endured four years of prep school. And I listened to Maureen Corrigan's reivew (Fresh Air, 8/20). So I looked forward to reading this. I read the first half to two-thirds of the book with enjoyment, with its evocation of both imperial Vienna and World War Two. Unfortunately, the rest of the book seemed focused on tying everything together -- perhaps too neatly -- and in the end, I was left wondering what was the point, especially if the villain of the piece is never punished. This will not entertain anyone who can't accept how the two heroes, father and son, personify all the virtues and implausibly connect with so much of the cultural life of the twentieth century.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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