The Mysterious Edge Of The Heroic World (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
A question was posed recently on the Horn Book blog run by Roger Sutton about what it would be like if reviewers never knew the names of the authors of the books they read and critique. It's an interesting idea. No human being is a blank slate, after all. You can't help but acquire little prejudices and preconceptions as you become more and more familiar with a writer's work. Sometimes you, the reviewer, are going to have to face facts about one author or another; You're just not that big a fan of their work. Take me, for example. If you asked me what I thought of E.L. Konigsburg I would yelp a quick, "I liked The View from Saturday," and hope to high heaven that you'd leave it at that. Fact of the matter is, I read "A View from Saturday" a long time ago. Maybe I'd feel the same about it now as I did the first time I perused it. Maybe not. You see as of right now I'm just not that into Konigsburg. I recognize her importance in the field of children's literature. I appreciate her stories and her characters and her plots. I'm just not that big a fan of her writing or her dialogue, and this makes it difficult for me to read her books. So when I found myself in possession of "The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World" I decided (yet again) to put aside my assumptions and just enjoy the ride. I failed in this. So basically I'm telling you right off the bat that if you want an unbiased review, look elsewhere. I can only write what I myself perceive, and what I perceive before me is a book that isn't quite sure who its audience is.Sixth grader Amedeo Kaplan has just moved to St. Malo, Florida from New York and he's in a bit of a rut. He has no friends, Florida is really humid, there are lovebugs mating all over his arms, and he has yet to discover something. Amedeo would kill to discover something ANYTHING, but so far he's been plumb out of luck. Enter William Wilcox. A loner and the son of a woman who runs estate sales, William has recently been seen entering the home of the amazing Mrs. Zender and Amedeo wants to know why. After all, Mrs. Zender is a former opera star with a home full of antiques, treasures, and mysteries galore. It doesn't take long for Amedeo to insinuate himself into the home as well and soon he's helping William pack up Mrs. Zender's things. She'll be entering a home before too long, but before she does Amedeo is certain that this is the place to discover the one thing no one else could find except for him. Turns out, he's absolutely right.One librarian I spoke to about this book noted that she liked it but that, "it wasn't a children's book." She may have a point there. The whole enterprise has a mature sensibility. Heck the conversations about how Mrs. Zender would always play a "boy or a bitch" and how her fans "all wanted to sleep with me", up the ante right there. It comes down to this; in the world Konigsburg has created here, the adults are far more interesting than the children. Reading through this book I got the distinct feeling that this would have made a far better stage play than title for the 10-14 set. The awkward sentences and too long pauses would fit better if read aloud by adults in front of an audience. Here they simply stand on the page looking awkward and out of place. The writing is fine but it doesn't always fit. The result is a frustrating title that doesn't quite know who it wants to speak to. Whenever a librarian faces a children's book that seems tailor made for only a particular kind of child we call it a "special book". I cannot say for certain, though, whether any child would enjoy "The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World". It seems not to have been written for them at all.
Wow...where to begin? The intended age of the reading audience is the real mystery.A mother and her son do estate sales for a living. A young neighbor, who happens to be an artist's son and a godchild of an art gallery owner, becomes friends with the boy and helps organize one of the houses to ready it for a sale. Simultaneously, the godfather happens to be opening an art show of art deemed degenerate by the Nazis. This show reveals some secrets to his own past. Coincidentally, the boys uncover a piece of art that unravels more of the story for the godfather that requires its owner to face some dark secrets about her husband.There are elements of this book which I would love to applaud highly. It has deeply developed characters. It endlessly jaunts off on detailed tangents - some of which ultimately are all intertwined into an important contribution to the whole - some not. I like that. Sometimes the foreshadowing in a story is too obvious...you can feel it immediately and your mind starts racing off to tie up the ends before the author does. To me, the clues in Mysterious Edge were not showing their hand too early since many of the jaunts led to nowhere except a fuller perception of the characters. At the end of the book, I could literally see every major character fully in my mind and knew them like a friend.The connection between the two storylines and the timing of both revelations seem very unlikely. There is no explanation, mystical or otherwise to account for the grand coincidence.The real problem for me in this book was the unnecessary adult subject matter in a book identified as written for 10 year olds and up?!? Do our ten year olds really need to have known from a glance inside her robe that Mrs. Zender was not a natural blonde? Does a ten year old really need a lesson on dramatic performances of "*itches and boys"? I could add to the list of elements that were too mature, not just morally, in the story such as domestic violence, marriages of convenience, excessive drinking, ... that don't seem appropriate - let alone interesting - to a ten year old.The novel was very intellectual with biographical sketches of artists and historical details of Hitler's response to "degenerate art". While other horrifying aspects of the Holocaust certainly make that issue pale in comparison, it was another aspect of the time that add to our knowledge bank...one that I've personally never heard about. Again, however, are prolific details about dead artists, from their palette to brush styles, interesting to a ten year old? I doubt it.Overall, I am impressed with the author's obvious intellect and ability to depict well-developed characters and stories. I'm just disappointed with the insertion of completely irrelevant subject matter. Some of it was relevant. Other mature subjects, however, were just not important to the plot at all and took the novel out of the intended age range.
What do You think about The Mysterious Edge Of The Heroic World (2007)?
I have mixed reactions to this book. Like other books which I have read by E.L. Konigsburg, this book is quirky, interesting, and well written. But it has older, more disturbing themes like the way people use other people, and elements such as homosexuality and Nazi persecution. Other themes are rather esoteric for children--opera and modern art. A piece of art which is central to the story is a nude drawing. There is also some language and sexual innuendo. None of it is explicit, but I found it definitely edgy. What really bothered me was that I found this book in the children's section of the library! The author is a two time Newbery winner, but that doesn't mean all her books belong there. I don't think elementary school kids would "get" this book at all, and it wouldn't appeal to many middle school kids, either. The two main characters are middle school boys, but I would classify this book as older YA lit. I decided to register a complaint with the library about its placement, but nothing changed. One great thought from the book: "Ninety percent of who you are is invisible."
—Dawn
One of my favorite parts of E.L. Konigsburg's writing is the random facts about random things that are included. I always come away feeling like I know more (as opposed to just being entertained). In that regard, I don't think any of her books have taught me more than The View From Saturday (I'll ALWAYS remember what TIP and POSH stand for thanks to The View), but this book the Mysterious Edge had some knowledge to pass on as well so that was fun. As far as the story goes, it was a little too slow-paced for my current taste, and I don't plan to buy it for my permanent collection, but I don't regret having read it. I do think the inclusion of homosexuality was important for the storyline (showing that the Nazis discriminated against them as well as against Jews) but I don't really care for storylines that feel including homosexuality is important. I gave this three stars out of my respect for the author, I don't think she could write anything terrible, but I don't think I could say I recommend this book for anyone.
—Erin Crittenden
Like E.L. Konigsberg's classic From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler, there's an art mystery at the heart of this story of two pre-teen boys and their growing friendship with a wealthy and eccentric old lady. However, with Mixed-Up Files, I was enchanted and drawn in by the very opening words. Mysterious Edge takes some faith and some reading to get into the plot. Once in, though, it's a satisfying story, though not nearly as light-hearted as Mixed-up Files was. There's a heart-breaking and sinister Holocaust connection. Also some great verses from one of my favourite poets, Phyllis McGinley.I had an interesting context for this book. I was reading this, the latest of E.L. Konigsberg's novels, at the same time that I was reading the earliest of Madeleine L'Engle's books The Joys of Love. Both L'engle and Konigsberg were among my very favourite authors when growing up; I have read pretty well everything they have written, and own most of their works. The L'engle book was an example of a young author not quite hitting her stride; The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World is something like Konigberg's twenty-first published work. It's one of her better ones.
—Persephone
