Ed King **spoiler alert**

I am going to give away plot points from Ed King, David Guterson's newest book.  If you do not want to know, please turn away.

The first book I read by David Guterson was Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense.  It was the tipping point for me.  When we were considering homeschooling I read many dozens of books and I felt like I was headed in the right direction, but Family Matters, that was the one book that made me realize that homeschooling was the right choice for our family.  Everything I read after that, was just affirmation.

I continued to read and enjoy David Guterson's books.  He is a local author and a homeschooling father so he is on my radar.  Also, he is a really good writer.  So, last Tuesday I made  space in my day and ran to the store to pick up his latest book, Ed King.  I starting reading the next day during Youngest Son's wrestling practice.  Now I knew going in that it is an Oedipus story, but I expected it to be more veiled.  I mean Ed King kills his father in the same way as the original, in an act of rage on the road into town.  GTO's, horse drawn carts, its all the same. 

My biggest gripe with the book is that it is probably 100 pages too long.  David did his research and did not want to leave a single word of it out.  Often I found myself thinking, "Get on with it already."  Like in Moby Dick when Melville goes on and on about the different whales.  OK, I understand that you know your whales, but I am here for the story.  Also, the book (Ed King, not Moby Dick) has WAY too much sex.  In hindsight I can think of three sex scenes that mattered.  The rest did not move the story forward, they stopped it dead in its tracks.  And what is up with Guido?  Like Ed, I too wished he would just shut up.  I have a feeling he is only there to facilitate the authors love of anagrams.  The epilogue contains names that I am certain are anagrams clever to the story, but I did not care enough to figure them out, beside the obvious Guido. 

I did like the ending.

The positive side?  It is going to make a fabulous movie!  The rights must have been optioned.  All of the tedious research will become background and make the story better.  The sex will have to be slashed and the story will flow perfectly.  People will love it, especially if it is not billed as a modern day Oedipus.