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The Odd Tales of an Old Man

Edward P. Cardillo
Lulu (2010)
ISBN 9780557570768
Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (4/11)

Edward Cardillo begins his novel, “The Odd Tales of an Old Man” with the following dedication:  “This book is dedicated to the elderly whose wisdom all too often remains untapped, but whose actions and experiences have shaped the world as we know it.” 

In the opening pages of the novel, the reader is introduced to Heather Enright and her two sons, Sean and Connor.  Heather is a single parent and isn’t around her boys much.  There is no father figure in their lives and the men that parade through the home probably do more harm than good.  This results in the boys, particularly Connor, becoming quite wild. 

Heather tells the boys that they are going to visit their grandfather who is dying in a nursing home.  Being that they have never met their grandfather, and that they know that their mom hasn’t spoken to their grandfather since she was a teenager, the boys aren’t all that excited about going.  The initial meeting isn’t the smoothest, but the old man tells them quite an array of tales on that, and on all of their future, visits.  Will the old man’s wisdom and knowledge shared through these tales be enough to help the boys?

I thought that the idea of the book was a good one and I was intrigued with the boys’ interaction with their grandfather.  The odd tales that the man told them were interesting and I enjoyed the lessons that came out of each one.  The book, however, was quite predictable and in some areas seemed to drag and in other areas seemed to not have enough detail.  I wish we would have seen more of Sean and Connor’s lives.  The areas of the book where they weren’t listening to their grandfather’s tales were sparse and seemed to just fly by leaving me without a true sense of who the characters really were.  Overall, while the concept was a good one, the execution was a bit lacking for me.  However, if you don’t mind a predictable read, the old man’s tales are full of wisdom and some are quite interesting. 

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