600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster

Book Details
600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster
Paperback, 278 pages
2009, Riverbend Publishing
ISBN: 1606390139

Synopsis
Edward Stanton is a man hurtling headlong toward middle age. His mental illness has led him to be sequestered in his small house in a small city, where he keeps his distance from the outside world and the parents from whom he is largely estranged. For the most part, Edward sticks to things he can count on...and things he can count. But over the course of 25 days (or 600 hours, as Edward prefers to look at it) several events puncture the walls Edward has built around himself. In the end, he faces a choice: Open his life to experience and deal with the joys and heartaches that come with it, or remain behind his closed door, a solitary soul.

Review
Fictional portrayals of people suffering from mental illness are usually extreme, enough to make us take notice of just how "crazy" the person is. In 600 Hours of Edward, we see life through the eyes of a man suffering from OCD and Asperger's Syndrome. What we see is realistic and shows how the life of someone mentally ill can be both very different and surprisingly similar to the lives of so-called "normal" people. This book really sucked me in and I just had to know where this story was going, causing me to read the entire book in one sitting. There were a lot of Dragnet references, which worked for me as I watched a lot of reruns on Nick-at-Nite as a kid. There was also a lot of Dallas Cowboy talk, which was completely lost on me. All in all, 600 Hours of Edward was a moving tale of a man's struggle to move beyond his illness and connect with people and a compelling read.

Rating

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