The Miracle Life Of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

 

Edgar Mint has a mixed parentage; his mother is Apache and his father a white guy who came west to try to be a cowboy and who moved on when he found out his girlfriend was going to have a baby.  He is raised for the first seven years of his life on the reservation with a mother who only wanted to drink.  When Edgar is seven, he is in an accident and the postman runs over him.  The postman and everyone else think that with the horrific head injury he has that Edgar is dead but he miraculously survives.

Edgar spends months in the hospital, recovering from the head wound and learning again how to walk and other physical movements.  He is the favorite of the hospital and makes friends with the men who are on his ward.  When he is considered ready to leave, he is sent to his great uncle who is a janitor at an Indian school and Edgar is put in the dormitories where he will live for years.  He makes one true friend and deals with bullies there.

From the school, Edgar is adopted by a Mormon family when he is a teenager.  He stays with them for a while then moves on into his adult life.  His mission is to find the postman who ran him over to let him know that he is still alive.  Will Edgar ever find a home and family?

Readers will become engaged with Edgar.  Although most would consider his life nothing but a series of miserable conditions, he remains an optimist and sees the best in everyone.  Edgar is life affirming and one of my favorite characters I've encountered.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.