Review 121: 600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster

Six-Hundred Hours of Edward
By Craig Lancaster

Copyright © 2009
Riverbend Publishing
$14.00 paperback
ISBN: 978-1606390139

One of the things I enjoy most about the independent author scene is the fluidty of the background in which we work. The process can be dynamic and it is fun to watch some of the iterations that books go through. For example, a book may be released under a one cover and then the author receives some feedback which sparks another idea, and shortly thereafter the cover has been changed. Or based upon reader feedback, the author may subtly change the focus or emphasis of a book. And there are the triumphs as well. Back in August the LL Book Review posted reviews of the winners of our review contest, and there was one conspicuous entry missing. Six-Hundred Hours of a Life by Craig Lancaster was reviewed and should have been the third review posted in August, however, we were contacted by Craig and requested to hold back the review as he had some very exciting news. Six-Hundred Hours of a Life had been picked up by a small publisher, Riverbend Publishing, who specializes in books about Montana, and Craig was in the process of working out the details with his new publisher. We were very excited and pleased for Craig and held back the review as per the wishes of the author. The book has now been released under Riverbend Publishing under the title of 600 Hours of Edward and we are able to publish the review of this fine book. One item of personal preference before jumping into the review. The new cover created for the title under Riverbend Publishing is pictured at the top of the review, but I prefer the original cover (right) which was created for Six-Hundered Hours of a Life.

What would life be like if you were a 39 year old man plagued with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Asperger’s Disorder? What would happen if your routines were upset and suddenly life seemed to be spiraling out of control? 600 Hours of Edward takes you into the heart and mind of Edward Stanton, and through 600 hundred hours, or 25 days, of life with Edward. As a prelude to the story, Edward sets up the framework for why the book was written, which I have included in Edward’s own words, so the intention can not be misconstrued. Edward would prefer it.

     This is a story of how my life changed. That is what one could call a dramatic statement. It‘s like when people find God; they say, “I found God, and it changed my life.” I did not find God. I am dubious that anyone can. When someone says he has found God, he doesn‘t mean it in the way that one would say he found a penny or something else tangible. He is talking about inner peace or something like that, I suppose. I don‘t know. I haven‘t found God, and I don‘t like supposition. I prefer facts.

     Even without God, my life did change, and Dr. Buckley suggested that I write about it. She said that writing about it would be a good project for me and one that might even help me understand how it happened and why. Dr. Buckley is a very logical woman, and I always need a new project.

     In looking back, I can fit what happened into 25 days, or 600 hours. I prefer to think of it in terms of hours, as I live my life more by a clock than a calendar. I will tell it as it happened, from where I viewed it. Others may have seen it another way. They can tell their own stories if they want to.

     I‘ll start with the last day that everything was normal, or what I believed normal to be. That‘s the problem with belief: If you rely on it too heavily, you have a lot of picking up to do after you find out you were wrong. I prefer facts.

Edward Stanton has his days rigidly mapped out, with several rituals to complete as milestones throughout the day. Every morning upon waking, he must record the hour and minute of his waking, and then later, after retrieving the Billings Gazette, the actual temperatures from the previous day, as well as looking at the forecast which is not to be trusted, because Edward prefers facts. He breakfasts on corn flakes while reading the newspaper, frustrated by the way certain features, such as Dear Abby, appear in different sections of the paper and have no pattern as to where they will appear.

Edward is frequently frustrated by the rest of the world’s inability to keep to a precise schedule, and lack of consistency. When he becomes frustrated he writes letters of complaint. Prior to what is referred to as the Garth Brooks incident, Edward would draft his letters of complaint and send them out. At the culmination of the Garth Brooks incident, Edward’s father, Ted Stanton, bought him the house he now lives in after persuading Garth Brooks to drop the restraining order against Edward.

I think that my letters of complaint to Garth Brooks were entirely justified. If you look objectively at country music, you cannot come to any conclusion other than he ruined it. He also ruined a lot of pop music, especially when he pretended to be that Chris Gaines person and when he covered that song by Kiss. I merely wrote to him and let him know about the damage he was doing, because I thought that maybe he didn‘t know and would stop if he did. I had to write to him 49 times before he wrote back, but it wasn‘t really him. It was his lawyer.

Being a lover of country music myself, I laughed out loud about the Garth incident, and I have to agree with Edward on the whole Chris Gaines thing. Since the Garth Brooks incident Edward’s therapist, Dr. Buckley, convinces him to continue writing his letters of complaint, but to file them instead of sending them. In this way, he is able to alleviate some of his frustration with whatever incident caused his ire, and yet not bring himself any grief from repercussions. So the writing of complaint letters has become part of Edward’s ritual to follow his nightly viewing of Dragnet episodes (just the color ones between 1967 and 1970). In 2000, Edward recorded all of the episodes, in order, on videocassette, and watches one episode a night at 10:00 p.m. sharp, starting on January 1st with the first color episode and continuing throughout the year. They are all one of his favorites. Edward identifies with Sergeant Joe Friday’s love for the facts and his detachment from those he is dealing with.

Taking a leaf out of Edward’s book, I would like to document a complaint, albeit a minor one.

Dear Edward,

I’m sure you have your reasons for telling the reader each time you recorded your waking time during the course of the book that it was the XXX day of the year (287th – 311th) because it is leap year. While this repetition is entirely consistent with your character and I understand you gain some comfort from the repetition, I didn’t know if you were aware that for some readers, this tends to be a little monotonous. I realize you are chronicling the 600 hours where your life was turned upside down, but there are mundane parts which have been left out. Perhaps you should trust that the reader will know that it is leap year after the tenth or so iteration, and no longer need to tell us.

Respectfully, as always,

Your Reader

During the 600 hours chronicled in this book, Edward makes a foray into online dating, makes friends with a nine year old boy while painting his garage (three times because the unhelpful clerk at Home Depot couldn’t help him come to a single selection, which triggered a letter of complaint), later becomes friends with the boy’s mother, and feels helpless as his relationship with his father deteriorates. Due to the Asperger’s, Edward lives an isolationist life, so to actually take steps to reach out to connect with another human being through the online dating process represents a huge step forward for him. Through his growing relationship with Kyle, the nine year old boy, we are given a glimpse of Edward’s social developmental level as well, which is on par with Kyle or even a little lagging. I fell in love with the character of Edward though because while he has quirks in his view seemingly the rest of the entire world lives without, he tries so very hard to overcome those, and he has a good heart. Edward is truly an endearing character. He is simply confused, or to use one of Edward’s favorite words, flummoxed, by social interaction conventions, and has never had any practice with them.

In my own personal life, I am very familiar with the traits and symptoms of someone with OCD, as I have a brother-in-law who is afflicted with this disorder. Edward’s ritualistic behavior with recording his time of awakening, the weather, watching Dragnet precisely at 10:00 p.m. each night, eating the same foods week in and week out, are all very recognizable as traits of OCD. Lancaster touches very lightly on the fears which are associated with a break in these routines, and does not allow us into the twisted rabbit warren of rationale which is entailed in the compulsions. The obsession with Dragnet is well portrayed. It started around the same time Edward was forced to leave home and live on his own. Sergeant Joe Friday, with his non-emotional (normally) delivery and liking for the facts, is someone with whom Edward can gain a measure of comfort. Edward feels Sergeant Joe Friday would be more patient with him, and listen to the facts of the issues at hand, than his father, who increasingly communicates with Edward through a lawyer. The greater the divide with his father, the more Edward replaces him with the surrogate, Sergeant Joe Friday.

My familiarity with Asperger’s was limited to the character of Jerry on the TV show Boston Legal, so I took the opportunity to educate myself as to this disorder after reading 600 Hours of Edward. I was very interested to find that Asperger’s is actually a mild form of the Autistic Disorder, and here in the United States is classified as Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). As I read the diagnostic criteria for Asperger’s, I marveled anew at how beautifully Lancaster penned the character of Edward. The characteristics of Asperger’s were clearly evident, but subtly drawn so as not to get in the way of the story itself. It is humorous to look back upon a scene where Ted Stanton rushes in to save Edward, and is telling someone Edward has OCD. As Edward hears this, he thinks:

This shows what my father knows. The full story is that I‘m obsessive-compulsive and that I have Asperger syndrome.

After reading up on Asperger’s I realized how clearly evident this fact is and again paid homage to Lancaster’s pen. I could go on and on about all of the really fine points of this book, to the point where I might rival the 80,000 words of the novel itself. The bottom line is this is a book which should be experienced. It is a wonderful read, and since this is his debut novel, I eagerly await Craig Lancaster’s next offering. It’s time for you to pick up 600 Hours of Edward. What are you waiting for?

Preview 600 Hours of Edward on Craig’s Blog

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