Wow! this is an Elvis Presley book: Love it or Hate it. The reader's uproar is similar to when 2001 A Space Odyssey was first released in theaters...many felt cheated at most and frustrated at least over the ending. No matter...Yes, there where those portions in this book, that, to me, were confusing. Yet they (all) had a 'flavor' worth tasting! The Old Clerk in the store? Haven't we all known someone similar? Almondine? Haven't many of us known a similar dog? Or felt we were having real conversations with or have seen a ghost? You don't NEED to have read Hamlet or understand the Bard. That's what a mystery is supposed to be all about! And Wroblewski has written this in spades!

Edgar is/was exactly what the story needed...a very well developed 'main' character amongst several 'main' characters. This is a story not just with heart...but deep, at once painful and yet often joyous heart. Don't attempt, as you read this book, to fully understand all aspects of it...Rather rejoice in the lives of all those within the story...and do look for metaphors in YOUR life...not necessarily Hamlets...Finally, Yeah! wouldn't a short "story," perhaps on-line, (by) Wroblewski, about what Essay was REALLY going to do at the end...Enjoy!