CANR

PERSONAL

Born 1959, in Oconomowoc, WI; companion of Kimberly McClintock (a writer).

EDUCATION:

University of Wisconsin, bachelor’s degree (computer science); Warren Wilson College, M.F.A. (creative writing).

ADDRESS

CAREER

Software developer and writer. Collective Intellect, Boulder, CO, worked as software developer.

AVOCATIONS:

Landscape photography, canine history and ethology.

WRITINGS

• NOVELS
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, Ecco (New York, NY), 2008
• Familiaris, Blackstone (Ashland, OR), 2024

SIDELIGHTS

David Wroblewski was born in 1959 in Oconomowoc, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After he graduated from the University of Wisconsin, he spent several years as a software developer. Then he began to write. His debut novel, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, is about the relationship between a young boy and his dogs. The novel also offers readers many complexities in theme and narration, along with a liberal dose of references to classical texts by William Shakespeare and Rudyard Kipling. In response to a question regarding the comparison of his novel to other literary works posed by New West contributor Jenny Shank, Wroblewski elaborated: “There were certain elements I knew I wanted, of course. For example, I knew from the beginning that Edgar’s story was told in five acts. A very formal structure for a novel. I understood that the Sawtelle dogs were Edgar’s Denmark. I also knew that I wanted to draw on some of Shakespeare’s other plays, snatching bits like the witches in Macbeth, or the blindness in [King] Lear.” The novel includes many references to mystical aspects and surreal surroundings that can be found in Shakespeare’s plays, such as a murder, the appearance of a ghost, and the dysfunctional family.

Wroblewski also told Shank that he was greatly influenced by other works that detail “the moral, ethical, psychological, and linguistic issues involved in animal training.” This fascination with animals, one’s natural surroundings, and a personal medical experience during which he was temporarily unable to verbally communicate all contributed to Wroblewski’s creation of the narrative and Edgar Sawtelle’s character. Ron Charles observed in an article at Washington Post: “You don’t need to catch the Hamlet references, and if you do, that won’t sap the novel’s suspense…. The real triumph is Edgar, this boy of rare sensitivity, virtue and resilience, carving out of air with his hands the rich language of his heart.”

In the story, Sawtelle is born without the vocal ability to speak. This circumstance leads him and his family to develop alternate forms of communication, including sign language and more intimate signals. As the family is in the business of breeding dogs, Sawtelle extends his dynamic form of communication to the canines. The tale takes a dramatic turn and, like Hamlet, Edgar experiences the death of his father, the addition of his uncle into the family dynamic, a period of removal from the family estate, and a return that culminates in new conflict for the protagonist. Janet Maslin wrote for a review at New York Times Book Review that, “whether it is capturing every nuance of puppy behavior” or “following Edgar through the dictionary as he picks names for his first litter,” the prose “is so natural and unfettered, so free of metaphor or other baggage, that even the simplest moments can have extraordinary grace. After a long but gripping passage during which Edgar and three dogs wander through the wilderness, driven from home and without any means of survival, even their discovery of canned food in a cabin can seem like a great wonder.”

Patricia Cohen, in an article at New York Times, acknowledged that Wroblewski’s “intimate knowledge of dogs” coupled with “his humanized versions of them” are what differentiate his writing from that of other authors. Wroblewski crafts a breed of dog whose intelligence and capacity for communication become central to the story. The importance of communication and the way that it affects one’s experiences with other individuals, animals, and the environment is a recurring motif. In an interview with Dave Weich for Powells, Wroblewski mentioned that he employs several techniques within his writing and stated: “Realism is only one tool that you use among many. I tend to think of it as imaginative fiction, using realism as a tool when necessary.” So, in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, Wroblewski uses a realist technique to convey fictional elements that lend both authenticity and imagination to the story. Jonathan Kirsch observed in an article at Los Angeles Times: “Some of the most intriguing passages of the book, in fact, are devoted to practicalities that the author succeeds in raising to the realm of the spiritual.” Wroblewski’s depth of description appears in everything he writes, from various dog breeding and training techniques to the emotional state of his characters. Kirsch described the book as “all at once, a mystery, a thriller, a ghost story and a literary tour de force,” and concluded: “Perhaps the most daring decision that the author has made is to write at the leisurely pace and in the digressive style characterized by the 19th century novel.” Consisting of roughly 566 pages, the text surpasses the length of Hamlet (only about 358 lines in all).

Within this space, Wroblewski introduces a somewhat unconventional character, a dog named Almondine. Wroblewski “channels Almondine without condescending to, sentimentalizing, or, most impressively, anthropomorphizing, her. This is the book’s major accomplishment,” related Bruce Olds in a Chicago Tribune essay. Olds continued, “Almondine never utters a word, yet Wroblewski endows her with an evocatively rich interior life rife with thoughts and dreams and emotions that lend felt meaning to her every plausible gesture. In the end, she not only graces the page as an entirely credible, fully realized, autonomous character but as the emotional pivot and fulcrum of the story.” In fact, Wroblewski provides many pages of commentary without the various characters uttering a single word of verbal dialogue. This absence of spoken language can allow the reader to focus on the meaning, rather than the syntax, of communication. In a review at Willamette Week, John Minervini commented: “Throughout the novel, English is depicted as a fraught medium: It is a language of crosswords and dictionaries, riddles and lies, obscuring meaning rather than clarifying it,” and, conversely, Sawtelle’s “sign language offers communication without medium—almost like telepathy—in which there is no untruth or misunderstanding.”

[open new]A decade and a half after his debut, Wroblewski at last published his second novel, the prequel Familiaris, concerning the fabled Sawtelle family a half century earlier. In 1919, John Sawtelle—grandfather of Edgar—a test driver for a car factory, serendipitously finds an idyllic parcel of land in the middle of Wisconsin when his jalopy breaks down. John’s personal scripture is the 1897 treatise Practical Agriculture and Free Will, which has him convinced that life’s purpose is to seek “the Singularism.”  After interludes involving an oversized carpenter, a World War I amputee, and a logger and his logical horse, John and soulmate Mary, a scintillating woman, set their sights on developing a new breed of dog, the Sawtelle. By the mid-twentieth century, John is determined to write a book titled “Familiaris,” perhaps revealing the secrets of his vocation. An awful incident involving John and Mary’s sons lays the groundwork for chilling events that take place in Wroblewski’s earlier novel.

A Kirkus Reviews writer hailed Familiaris, which is some twelve hundred pages long, as “ambitious and captivating.” The reviewer found that the curious characters and “hilarious and moving” episodes make for a “cabinet of wonders” filled with “delights.” Noting that Wroblewski has elicited comparisons to the likes of John Irving and Cormac McCarthy—and adding Gabriel García Márquez to the list—the reviewer affirmed that he “earns them all, amply rewarding readers” who have long awaited his second work. Going so far as to praise Familiaris as “a great American novel of people and passions and ideas,” the reviewer concluded that while it may take “eons … to read it, this colossus of a book will own you.”[close new]

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Booklist, June 1, 2008, Ian Chipman, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, p. 45.

• Entertainment Weekly, June 13, 2008, Tina Jordan, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, p. 75.

• Houston Chronicle, July 13, 2008, Lisa Jennifer Selzman, “Great American Novel; The Story of Edgar Sawtelle a Stunning, Elegant Book about a Boy and His Special Gift with Dogs,” p. 16.

• Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2008, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle; March 1, 2024, review of Familiaris.

• Library Journal, March 15, 2008, Henry Bankhead, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, p. 65.

• Miami Herald, July 2, 2008, Amy Driscoll, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

• New Statesman, July 28, 2008, Christopher Hawtree, “Silent Horrors,” review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, p. 51.

• New York, June 23, 2008, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, p. 61.

• New Yorker, June 30, 2008, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, p. 77.

• New York Times Book Review, August 3, 2008, Mike Peed, “The Dog Whisperer,” p. 6.

• Poets and Writers, July-August, 2008, “The Permanent Prince,” review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, pp. 10- 11.

• Publishers Weekly, February 18, 2008, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, p. 132; May 19, 2008, Micheal Fraser, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, p. 11.

• Record (Bergen County, NJ), July 16, 2008, Amy Driscoll, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, p. F8.

• USA Today, July 1, 2008, Deirdre Donahue, “The Story of ‘Sawtelle’ Author Is a Must-Read,” p. 1D; July 1, 2008, “Dogged Pursuit of Excellence,” p. 5D.

ONLINE

• Bookdwarf, http:// www.bookdwarf.com/ (January 16, 2008), Megan Sullivan, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

• Bookreporter, http:// www.bookreporter.com/ (December 30, 2008), Joe Hartlaub, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

• Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com/ (June 14, 2008), Bruce Olds, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

• Curled Up with a Good Book, http://www.curledup.com/ (January 2, 2009), Karen D. Haney, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

• David Wroblewski website, https://www.davidwroblewski.com (April 25, 2024).

• Goodreads, http:/ / goodreads.com/ (December 29, 2008), author profile.

• Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (September 19, 2008), Don Babwin, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

• Kirkus Reviews, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (December 15, 2023), Michael Schaub, “David Wroblewski to Release First Book in 15 Years.”

• Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/ (July 13, 2008), Jonathan Kirsch, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

• New West, http://www.newwest.net/ (June 6, 2008), Jenny Shank, author interview.

• New York Magazine, http://nymag.com/ (June 19, 2008), Sarah Weinman, author interview.

• New York Times Book Review, http://www.nytimes.com/ (June 13, 2008), Janet Maslin, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

• New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/ (July 9, 2008), Patricia Cohen, “This Summer’s Dog Days Suit One Novelist Fine.”

• Oprah website, http: / /www.oprah.com/ (December 30, 2008), author profile.

• Powells website, http://www.powells.com/ (April 23, 2008), Dave Weich, author interview.

• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle website, http://www.edgarsawtelle.com (December 30, 2008).

• Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (June 8, 2008), Ron Charles, “Terrible Silence,” review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

• Willamette Week, http://wweek.com/ (July 9, 2008), John Minervini, review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.