A book review of Edgar & Lucy by Victor Lodato.
As I was reading Edgar & Lucy by Victor Lodato, I realized it’s been a while since I’ve read such an excellent book. I loved this book from the very beginning to the very end. It’s a long book that you don’t mind at all that’s it’s long, as a matter of fact, I would have gladly kept reading had there been more story to tell. But like the perfect book that it is, it ended on just the right note and left me completely fulfilled.
The title of the book refers to Edgar and his mother Lucy. Lucy is widowed and a bit wild. Edgar is a thoughtful child dealing with the ramifications of being an albino.
If I had to come with one word to describe this book it would be relationships. Every relationship is so developed, complicated and intricate like they are in real life. There is Edgar & Lucy, Edgar & Florence, Edgar & Conrad, Edgar & Jackie, Lucy & Florence, Lucy & Frank, Lucy & Ron, and even more smaller relationships. When you finish reading the book, you feel like you know these people, that they are your friends.
While your getting to know all these characters and their relationships you are surrounded by prose so moving. The writing so beautiful. When we sit out on our back porch in the summer, we face an area of woods at the back of the lawn. Sometimes when there is a breeze, all of the leaves are nodding at once. I’ve watched them and wished that I could describe it. Well, Victor Lodato did and much more beautifully than I ever could:
“The congress of leaves shivered and rolled, a voluptuous tossing that culminated in a vigorous nodding, as if all the trees agreed on something. The decision was unanimous; the answer; yes.”
This book has everything: beautiful writing, excellent characters, and a few turns of plot that I didn’t see coming at all. Excellent.
I received an ARC of this book.
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