The Little Book
By: Selden Edwards
Dutton 2008
"The Little Book" is a love story that spans generations, ranging from 1897 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, legends 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 his modern self wandering in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: fin de siA]cle Vienna. It is 1897, precisely ninety-one years before his last memory and a half-century before his birth.
Its 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 Wheelers 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 the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legends 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 his modern self wandering in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: fin de siA]cle Vienna. It is 1897, precisely ninety-one years before his last memory and a half-century before his birth.
Its 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 Wheelers 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.
A truly unique story, Edwards’ The Little Book is a labour of love 30 years in the making. It is amazing how Edwards constructs his story around a most pivotal and burgeoning time period in history while including a few notoriously famous historical figures such as Sigmund Freud and the child Adolph Hitler. Edwards whisks us away to turn of the century Vienna.This book is not about time travel, but about the relationships in one’s family, the people in one’s family and getting to know who you are through getting to know them. It’s about revelations and the time travel aspect is just a vehicle to get us there.
At times I didn’t know quite what to make of the hero, Wheeler Burden. But his presence in the book is just as mysterious as his journey is.
The plot is filled with a lot of twists and turns and I truly didn’t know how this story was going to end.
Story ****
Characters ***
Readability ***
Overall Rating ***
Sound like one I will have to definitely check out
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