(Bloomsbury, $36.99)The task of taking on Sophocles’ classic tragedy oedipus Rex and reinterpreting it for the 21st century would have many writers trembling in their loafers. It may also have many readers wobbling in theirs too.
But although a knowledge of the kill-father-marry-mother tale might be useful for enjoying Ed King – and may finally give you a chance to utilise what you learned in sixth form classics class – a willing suspension of disbelief is perhaps more important.
Ed King begins in the US in 1962. President Kennedy is in office, the Russians are the enemy du jour and Walter Cousins, a seemingly affable everyman living in the ‘burbs, is about to make the biggest mistake of his life.
With his wife taking time out in a mental institution, Walter hires an underage English au pair, Diane Burroughs, to help him care for their two children.
Entranced by Dianne’s oh-so-sweet accent and coquettish glances, Walter soon finds himself in a moral – and legal – bind.
His indiscretion serves as the first link in an elaborate chain of incidences, accidents, coincidences and quantum leaps that propel this book towards its stunning conclusion.
For Ed King, writer David Guterson employs the Sliding Doors approach to storytelling, with the characters’ lives intersecting in a random series of fateful encounters.
The plot jumps back and forth between Walter, Diane and the loftily named title character, Ed King.
Abandoned on a doorstep as an infant, Ed is adopted by a young couple. Growing up unaware of his arrival into the world, young Ed is the apple of his parents’ eye – charming, athletic and academically gifted.
After a wayward period as a teenager, including a high-speed car crash that changes his life forever, Ed is soon on a path to wealth and fame – and finding out his true story.
In adulthood, Ed develops into a man of our times. He’s a billionaire internet mogul – in the manner of oicrosoft’s Bill Gates or Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg – and his public fall from grace, in an age where many of us know more about celebrities’ lives than those of the people around us, feels eerily familiar.
Anyone familiar with oedipus Rex may feel they know the outcome of Ed King before they even start reading it.
However, that knowledge doesn’t dull the satisfaction of watching this tragedy/train wreck unfold.
Despite its ambitious premise, Ed King is as entertaining as it is thought provoking and is a worthwhile departure from much of what’s on bestseller lists today.
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