What readers think of Edgar and Lucy, plus links to write your own review.

Edgar & Lucy is a deeply moving book and one that I would highly recommend for anyone. It would be an especially good book for book clubs as there are so many potential areas of discussion. I loved the way Lodato developed his characters and filled them out with both good and bad characteristics, making them so much more believable than might typically be found in fiction. They surprise you at every turn but over and over I suspect most readers will find them saying and doing things that are easily recognizable for most of us. The phraseology is lovely and puts into words the emotions that for most, are only ever felt, perhaps deeply, but never truly expressed in language form.

I would actually reread this book and that is something I have only done perhaps 2-3 times in 60 years of reading avidly. Enjoy...you owe it to yourself.

I truly enjoyed this book. It is wonderfully written and while it may not be for everyone; it grabbed me. The subject of death and love and how we deal with it is so well done. Edgar is an albino and and is a young boy for most of the story. Secrets of his fathers death lead him to many questions that stay unspoken by the others in his family. Conrad comes on the scene with his own issues and a very unusual relationship. The author does a great job of dealing with how all people deal with sadness, grief and love in different ways. You are actually in the minds of the different main characters which makes the book especially clear on the feelings and thoughts of the characters. This book is a thought-provoking one for sure.

I've been on a campaign to decrease the number of books in the unread heap by focusing on shorter volumes - 200 to 300 pages. It's been very successful and has returned to my attention authors I haven't read before. When I received Edgar and Lucy I took a deep breath and dived in. Happily and enthusiastically as it turned out. This book has everything for the reader of tales. Off kilter characters, family drama, multiple viewpoints and beautiful readable language. Highly recommended.

Love, family and how that family has treated its members lies at the heart of Lodato's Edgar and Lucy. Edgar's mother, Lucy, is very young, and suffers a broken leg trying to rescue her also young husband, Frankie, when he commits suicide by plunging his car into a river. Lucy's father, a drunk, has never treated Lucy or her mother with respect. Frankie's mother, Florence, practically raises Edgar, since his father is dead and Lucy must work. Edgar is kidnapped at age seven by a man overwhelmed by guilt over his accidental shooting of his own eleven or twelve-year-old son ten years earlier. Even the female detective assigned to Edgar's case has her own problems in that she can't have her own children and for far too long believes Edgar has simply run away. Though all the characters are flawed (usually by events in their past) , we are shown that for the most part they have good hearts and good intentions, and the story in which Lodato brings them to us will stay with you long after you've finished the book.

Lodato's smooth style of writing flows through the novel from beginning to end. Although his use of a water motif, which becomes more apparent as the novel winds to its conclusion, terrified me at times, I absolutely loved this book. Similar to smooth flow of water as it approaches a falls camouflages the danger that lies beneath, I felt the danger as if I were living at 21 Cressida Drive or in the Pine Barrens. Edgar Allan Fini, the eight year old narrator and compulsive obsessive albino, suffers taunts from his schoolmates, loses his equally obsessive grandmother Florence Fini , his protector and surrogate mother, and turns to an equally lost adult Conrad Billings. Edgar's mother Lucy Bubko Fini survives an abusive childhood and lives a reckless young adulthood as a result of losing husband Frank Fini who has committed suicide a year after Edgar's birth Neither woman, who reside under the same roof, has come to terms with the overwhelming emptiness in their lives. No prospective reader should allow the book's length of 536 pages to deter reading the book. Yes, at times the sadness of so many situations that face the characters overwhelms, but it is the strength of the love that the mother, son, and stepfather develop that enables them to overcomes the sadness and put the past at rest.

Edgar Allan Fini, the albino. Conrad. Florence. Lucy. The butcher. Characters so complex and rounded, intriguing and gripping, and why I didn't put want put the book down until I was finished. The last few chapters seemed to rush through to The End though and I longed for a little more detail. The relationships between characters were fascinating and complex: Florence and Edgar, Edgar and Conrad, Lucy and her father, Lucy and the butcher. This coming-of-age novel (and not just Edgar's coming-of-age) is one of the best I've read recently and at the last word, I sighed, wishing it would go on. This is a story of disappointment and grief, courage and loss, and of the resilience of humans and the ability to overcome and triumph. It illustrates just how resilient and irrepressible children are and how they survive to become adults despite the misguided adults around them. This is a book to be read and discussed by book clubs. I want more stories from Victor Lodato.

This is a dynamic book. The characters exhibit classic dysfunctional personalities. However, the author does a remarkable job of describing how each person feels and thinks, even the dog, Jack.
The people in this book have a variety of mental problems, addictions and fears. Yet the reader gains and an understanding of and compassion for each one.
The only weakness I found was the last sections dragged on too long. To describe in more detail would be a "plot spoiler."
I was fascinated by this book and can visualize an in-depth discussion by book club members.

I knew by page 5 if the story was as strong as the writing I was possibly reading a bestseller. The boy's feelings and thoughts were so thought provoking I started making notes and highlighting different passages to go back to and think about again.. Edgar and Lucy will be in my mind and heart for a very long time, and on my bookshelf to revisit and read again. It is a lengthy story but I found myself not wanting it to end and as the end drew near, I started rationing out the pages even knowing I had a review to post I stretched it out. This book isn't like anything I've ever read and even though it's not exactly a "feel good" read it will stay with you for a very long time in a good way.